The Fool of Owari
by TaekiAnahazu
Summary: Falling into a magic circle is one thing. Meeting a scary gun lady inside of it? That was scary. But turning into her, succeeding her, and inheriting her legend? Yeah, that was the icing on the cake. Issei was perfectly fine with that, though, and if anything, the gender change was secondary. (Or so she learned.) Girl!Issei. Yes.
1. Chapter 1 - The Meeting

**This story I'm writing is a remake/reboot/rehash/reimagining/bootleg version of Demon King of the Sixth Heaven by Birdflue, which was abandoned by the author 2 years prior the publishing date. I think what I've made here was a bit too sappy, but eh. As a word of warning, like the original author ****I have no idea what I'm writing about either****. I'd look up scenes on the Internet but problem is, DxD is basically a serialized hentai, so not a single relevant thing is on YouTube. Not to mention, watching the series while my parents just came back from their vacation is very risky****.**** So, if anyone wants to help fill in the gaps that I'm not sure of, write away****.**

**The new description was planned for already, since I thought the original one was kind of stiff.**** The cover image too, since Sean Connery gun pointing doesn't suit the Guda 2-3 mood I'm planning for the stort. If anyone knows the source, that would be great. I forgot it myself.**

**This version should have some edited text, and obscure sentences that won't need you to reread the entire thing. Had to copypaste the chapter from the mobile website, so some of the italics will probably be gone. Sorry about that. **

**Starting with this edit update (08-02-2019), The Fool of Owari has now surpassed Demon King of the Sixth Heaven in terms of Favorites and Follows. I feel undeserving of all this, to be honest, especially since this is my first story. But I'll do my best to live up to your expectations. Really, thanks.**

**_I should really think up a better name for this fic, honestly. Well, either way, this is just a quick update to let you know I'm still alive. I'm just really lazy. (01/20/2020). Just... really guys, give me ideas. I'm fine as far as the light novel goes right now, but I'm lost. This ain't the field I'm used to working in. It's various levels of mood whiplash, like, this ain't DXD, and this ain't FGO. And that's... not fine. Hmm._**

**Hello there. It's been a while. I've rewritten everything to fit my standards now, but if that's not enough I've also made some adjustments to the pronouns, depiction of various characters and so on to make things a bit more consistent. For what it's worth, I actually forgot which part of the 7th LN I was stuck in, but I could always skim the rest of it. That's a really difficult to read book.**

**_Yeah, you get the idea._**

**Found the source for image. Omi unfortunately doesn't want anything to do with rehosting, even when sourced, so I had to retire the old one. Sorry about that. Source for new image is, ****68767680 by Shishigai / シシガイon Pixiv. Their Twitter is tgh326.**

Issei Hyoudou didn't always have a corrupt and perverted mind. Long before that, he was a bright and innocent young boy, full of youth and eager to please. Less so on the bright side, since he was one of those case studies of a so-called 'book dumb', but indeed, he was of a calm and mild nature. Such that his innocence invited the attention of his friend to be, one that influenced much of his childhood and to the present. Irina Shidou, a girl who was apparently so masculine, so tomboyish, that for most of their early friendship Issei Hyoudou had assumed that she was a boy.

The two were close, very close in fact, that the girl had actually developed a crush on the boy as they grew together through thick and thin. Although they may have their occasional argument, they were both of the same temperament, allowing them to nurture their bonds even stronger after every compromise. Such was the nature of childhood innocence.

Not all things were to be, however. Their friendship ended suddenly, but neither were truly at fault. At some point in their lives, Irina's family had to leave for England. Their bond was torn apart, and not much could be done be done about it unless Irina could come back to Japan to meet him again. As it is, he left his home late at night, feeling crushed and betrayed. The experience was one that would change the course of his history forever.

In the normal world, Issei would put his foot down and move on with his life. He'd attend High School having almost forgotten about the friend that colored most of his childhood, only a footnote smudged by childhood trauma. It was all until a fateful night that would get him almost killed by his psycho ex, revived, and made to serve one of his schoolmates as a bonafide demon. Later on, he would meet her once more, finding out her actual physical sex in a rather violent manner, and the story would go on from there.

This isn't that story, however. To begin with, in what world would a young boy turned girl go out of their way to voyeur on the fairer sex when they themselves have a pair of the important bits of their own? Certainly not without some reluctance, and she'd need to actively make them bigger anyway. It's not easy doing your business when you're a clone of the girl who would sit inside your head for the rest of your life.

One day while walking in the park, Issei stumbled across something that would change his life. If fate were allowed to do their job for once, he would come across an old gentleman sitting on the bench who would be responsible for turning the boy into an excessively pubescent and lecherous young adult. Although what he did encounter there was not a lecherous old man, it was still set up by the mischievous motives of another old man whose intentions derive either hate or amusement from their victims.

It was an intricately made magic circle. An eight pointed star like a compass was fitted in the middle. A language, archaic and seemingly mystical, covered every section like paint to a canvas. Glyphs, circles and various other symbols dotted the rest of the image.

Issei took a little more time to process what he saw, sweat beginning to gather behind his back. He looked around the area surrounding him, seeing if what was before him was truly there or not. And true enough, there didn't seem to be much of anything. There was no real reason to be afraid of what this was, right? Magic wasn't real, the warning signs chanting in his head were just being paranoid. It's just an elaborate painting made by a possibly demented cultist, right? Absolutely nothing wrong at all, _unless those crazy cultists were right behind, right!?_ He looked around again as shivers went up his spine.

The park was simply dead silent, in an almost defeaning manner. Not even any sounds of animals, cars, or the whistle of the wind interrupted his mania. Just him, his bated breath, and a glowing, spooky witchcraft circle. The glowing part honestly didn't help things.

He was, after all, in an age where belief in the supernatural and fantastical beings began to wane. Magic wasn't _supposed _to be real, the circle couldn't be made of maybe blood... He might just be tired. Whatever fantastical story he had brewing in his mind was all fiction. And yet, he still couldn't take his eyes off it.

Indeed, it had come to such a point that the boy simply stared blankly at it, moving ever so slowly and cautiously noting any signs of movement. As he moved forwards, he clutched his beloved Gameboy closer to his chest, seemingly entranced and totally unaware of his surroundings. All it took was a loose pebble on the ground to trip him straight into the ground, face first on the concrete before the circle itself.

If the boy hadn't panicked and covered his face at the last moment, he would have been witness to the dull red of the circle beginning to glow before him. Even then, however, he wouldn't be able to case as Issei somehow fell unconscious before he even hit the ground. As he drifted unconscious, the mental image of an old vampire with an impish look in his face meets his mind, and before he knew it, he was somewhere else.

Issei found himself in a large empty room devoid of anything but himself. Panting, he looked around the white void of nothingness where the circle had brought him. Before he could even consider panicking, another voice broke the silence.

"Hey kid," a girl said. Red eyes met his own, and Issei nearly burst into panic. Despite the mass hysteria he had brought to himself, he somehow came up with one rational thought; was it truly a smart idea to scream at the sorceress who brought him here? This same sorceress seemed very capable of cutting him down immediately, sword in hand, mind you, right before him.

The witch held a very intimidating image indeed, if she even was one. Her wide smile beneath the military cap and her blood red eyes emanated charisma and venom. The rest of her outfit didn't give much of a magical feel, however. A military uniform, red cape and yellow boots gave her an image of a general awaiting for battle, and not someone who weaved with sword and sorcery. Even in his fear however, he silently fanboyed at the thought of a modern day magician using revolver and wand hand in hand, an example that was definitely before him.

"Do not fear," the girl had told him, but the boy, already in great panic, thought the exact opposite. He could see it now, this witch cutting him up and throwing his guts into a bubbling cauldron. Right there and then he knew he should've stayed home, should've learned to never touch random objects he didn't know the purpose for. He should've ran home before it could've gotten much, much worse. But it was all for naught, he was already in the worst day of his life. His life was over. The best thing that he could do now was clench his teeth and stare at his would be murderer with a thinly veiled mask of defiance hiding a scared-shitless little boy wanting his mother.

Unimpressed, the girl leaned forward at the boy who was now kneeling on the cold white floor. He clenched his teeth. This, Issei thought he knew, was the moment where he would die. Memories flashed before him, the lessons drilled into him by his parents, the times they had together, and Shidou's bright smile.

And yet, her facial expression changed, seemingly satisfied by what she saw before her. "We're going to do great things, you and I," she beamed, smiling contently for once in their one sided conversation. Issei didn't know how to process the information, the message sent to him far too strange to his hear. Was he to be her slave? And that farce of confidence he showed off earlier burned away when he felt her icy cold grip around his neck. He shut his eyes, whimpering murmurs and apologies to his family for being such a bad boy to them, wondering still if the heaven that his best friend talked about would let some annoying brat like him in.

"But we can't do any of that with a body like that, now, can we?" She said with a shrug, although seemingly with apprehension. She put her left hand on the other side of his neck, and Issei could only see red, his vision blurring.

Her hands were colder than the sweet embrace of death. It was so cold in fact that Issei thought that what was surrounding him was in fact the lowest circle of hell. Issei couldn't tell from the pain if it was hot or cold anymore, the distinction not all mattering as the pain went further beyond. His mind was only focused on the pain and the strange, almost euphoric numbness he could feel around his body. He simply didn't know what was happening to him. What was unknown to him, yet very obvious to the beholder.

"Here's to a wonderful partnership, partner!" she cheered. What was once a blindingly white void turned into a burning hellhole. A massive skeletal being appeared before him, still ignored by the feeling on his hand. Smoke and soot flowed out of every hole, making him hack and cough violently.

The pain on his neck was tame compared to his left arm and hand now. Issei rolled on the ground, tears dried up by the ever present flame covering his arm. It was almost like his body was burning from the inside and out. The pain was too much for him, and so he fell into blissful unconsciousness. As the fires died down, the girl stood still as the transformation before her continued.

Issei's body shifted, his hips rearranging, shoulders moving, and hair growing. His body morphed painfully and ever so slowly into a clone of the girl behind him. If anyone were to witness the two in action, one would even think they were twins, if not an elder sister to her younger.

The girl that saw fit to do this to him knew what was happening with a melancholic, almost sadistic smile. Then suddenly, her face became pained, as her smile turned into regret. Where once her eyes seemed manic and dull, they immediately widen in horror, quickly removing her hands from the boy's neck with a quick tug, but the damage was already done. With only a little time before her host would wake up, she used up her last moments inside the empty space to say one last thing to him, knowing yet that it would only be heard by deaf ears.

"I am so, so sorry."

Nuzzling closely to the prone body, she carries the newly made girl's upper body, and hugs it tightly as the once brightly white expanse darkens into an abyss.

At this moment, Issei woke up with a start with his face meeting the ground. He lifted his body slightly off the ground and with an ache in his head. With a yelp, he pushed himself off the ground entirely, his beloved Gameboy falling to the ground by his weakened grip. Issei backed away from the dull red circle, heartbeat accelerating.

By some instinct, Issei reached down to his waist and pulled a gleaming katana from the sheath on his side before the circle that had scarred him for life. He felt safer for a moment, until rational thought had pointed out that he had never touched a sword, much less a katana, in his entire life, nor did he have the martial ability to hold one so efficiently Yet here he was, holding one with his gloved(?) hands as if it were drilled into him. He also wasn't the type to wear hats as a fashion sense either, yet the feeling of fabric around his forehead was quite clear to him.

With a practiced motion that Issei was sure he never practiced, he turned the flat portion of the blade to face him. It was a mirror image he didn't expect to see.

Reflected before him was a face all too familiar to him by now. It was the witch that had burned him alive. Somewhat younger, yet he could tell that the clothes she wore were an exact match as well.

"_Surprise_!" her voice echoing in Issei's mind as he almost drops the blade in shock. His body moved, looking around the surrounding area for the source of the voice. Even as he panicked, the sword he holds with two hands already hungered for blood and vengeance.

"W-What do you want?" The voice of the murderer came out of his throat. "What did you do to me?"

It was strange to hear the voice of her tormenter come out worried and falling apart, especially the surreal feeling that it came from his own mouth. The few words they've exchanged came out hardened and sharp enough to cut steel compared to his anxious muttering.

"_Hyoudou Issei_", the echo came. Issei shuddered, facing back to meet absolutely nothing once again. "_Circumstances have brought us together in this fashion_," he heard in his left ear. His right hand twitched on the sword that he held, sheathing it despite Issei's best attempts to prevent it. His face unwillingly turned from a grimace of fear to a smile, and then the boy found himself sitting down.

"I'd like to introduce myself first, however," he found himself saying unwillingly. "My name is Oda Nobunaga. I was remembered as the tyrant who united Japan. Remember it well." She tapped her golden boots impatiently, doing her best not to attract anymore people's attention.

"We happen to be sharing a body, now," his mouth said, though Issei noted that her would be more accurate at the moment. Tears began to form, though the hold on his body slowed their production to just one every few seconds.

Issei knew his history well. The name of the most infamous warlord in Japanese history could send shivers down the spines of the people living during his era. If it weren't for the booming voice of the ghost inside of him insisting that she was who she spoke of, he truly wouldn't have guessed her identity.

"Your historians got only part of the story correct. True, there was a period of time that I became a man in order to better lead my soldiers in the field of battle, but that was so long ago," she said with a contemplative tone. "I suggest relaxing a bit. It's barely been an hour since we've been together, after all."

"I'll get this right off the bat, though. I am dead. Best I could describe it, I'm a ghost possessing you right now." She moves his hand to get a rock and began tossing it up and down. "In any normal situation, I would have been summoned to fight in a Holy Grail War as a servant. However, that didn't quite happen."

"Instead of appearing before you as a servant, you were pulled into the circle and met me inside of it. There was something that stopped me from being summoned normally, and I felt… compelled to turn you into me instead," she said sadly, pebble throwing paused for a moment. "This," she pulled his glove down to reveal an intricate red tattoo. Her, Issei begrudgingly corrected. "Should have been the sign of our connection together. A command seal." She then pulled it back up.

"I don't know why this all happened, honestly. All I can gather was because you fell into that magic circle," Nobunaga surmised, taking a quick glance at the circle. "I don't know who drew it, or for what reason, or especially not why it coerced me into doing this," she gestured to their shared body. "To you. I believe it called me from…" she considered the situation and her magically ignorant host, "the underworld. Hell."

Issei felt like a prisoner in his own body, barely listening to her monologue. He was only slightly able to control what he felt outside. All he could do at this point was imagine the same demon king beheading his parents in his own body, taking their skulls and drinking sake and wine from their empty shells. If he had any sway over it still, he'd have begun crying again at this point.

"I took a quick look at your memories up to this point," Nobunaga said sadly. Issei heard her, moving his eyelids slowly. "For what it's worth, I really am sorry. Any child having to deal with this much trauma in just a day would just feel devastated at this point. And I think that lesser minds would've dealt with this far worse..." Issei's inner mind couldn't resist releasing a chuckle.

"Just to let you know? We shouldn't be alive at this point. Both of us, to be honest," she said, grinning, though Issei couldn't properly process what he heard. "Your left hand kept us both alive, I think."

And Issei's mind shot into overdrive. The burning from earlier erupted once more, searing him, his family, his home, and everyone close to him. Tears gushed out, only to be silenced once again by her response.

"LISTEN TO ME CLEARLY!" She shouted out loud, to be met by curious faces by passerby's. It had cut down Issei's panicked thoughts. He only had to listen. This was the voice that led armies to unite Japan or die trying, after all. It was a voice that could not, and should not be ignored. Anyone who tried were to be shot and hanged.

"I would never do any of that unless your parents became my sworn enemies, and something like that is never going to happen." She countered exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "We need to lay down some ground rules, kid," she said.

"This was your body, so I think I'd be willing to give us two or three options," she said, raising two fingers and another on the other hand. "The first option is we stay like this as we are, allowing me to take the reins whenever I'd like," she said while emphasizing her ring finger. "This lets you do the most of the oral and nonverbal communication while I handle anything you need me with like giant monsters, evil religious fundamentalists, or the bog standard ninja out to assassinate you." None of them boded well for the child, but it was better for her to be prepared than anything.

"The second option is for us to swap between one another every morning. Although this might seem a bit selfish, I did count this in at least partially so that I could experience modern life to the fullest without having to interrupt you every now and then. I won't interfere with your day to day activities, and you won't in mine." She twitched his middle finger to point out where it was.

"The third and last option would be the unthinkable. We would merge. Our memories, souls and existence in general. Two beings becoming one is becoming real popular nowadays, I think a Shonen series you've watched had that concept as one of the gimmicks?" Nobunaga said, tilting her head as if she was talking to someone. "Though if I were to be honest, I still think I'd come out on top." Knowing how easily she took over his body earlier, Issei felt inclined to agree, and a nervous bead of cold sweat threatened to fall down her neck.

"I was kidding! The first option it is," Nobunaga laughed shortly, having a blank expression on her face. "I like being myself, retainer, and I know you would too. I wouldn't want to deprive you of your own life anymore as it is." she tapped their shared noggin, "So for now, I'll wait until you need me out there, kid."

Letting out a rumble of crazed laughter, her hold vanished. Issei fell backwards on herself like a fisherman losing his grip. She regretted the action, as the veritable blanket of hair behind her slid underneath, pulling her head backwards as she falls face down on the paved floor. The cape behind her didn't help any as it just pulled her further backwards. Slowly pushing herself up, she processed what had transpired as she began to cry slowly, heaving heavy breaths.

After all, even knowing the ghost's noblest of intentions simply didn't want any of this to happen and tried to make the most out of a terrible situation, she was still a child. A child that had just returned from experiencing betrayal and one of the most traumatizing experiences in her life, who could blame her? She cried harder and harder with her face down, ignoring the murmurs of the pedestrians that passed by.

She could still feel the flames that burned her alive, the boisterous laughter of the girl that ruined her already horrid day even more. Not even the call of his mother could rouse him from his tears. The voice grew closer and closer to her until she was right beside him. All those who passed by ignored him, except her mother who had just arrived to pick her up. One did not simply help an upset cosplayer lying on top of a demonic circle, after all, and anyone curious enough to come close didn't wish to test if the blade she held was real or not.

"Excuse me, Miss", her comforting voice came, hand patting her back to help her in this hour of need. "Are you feeling okay?"

"M-Mommy," she said, pushing his face to her stomach, arms slowly moving to her waist in an embrace. A few more desperate sobs moved her body in sync. Despair formed in her stomach, wondering if her own mother could even recognize her in this state. Realizing this, Issei cried even harder, as the iron grip clutch tightened on her mother even more.

Mrs. Hyoudou could only stand silently as the stranger buried her face onto her chest. She frowned as she assessed the ominous looking circle on the ground. The paint and blood comprising the once intricately and carefully made circle of magic was smudged and smeared was most likely caused by the young girl before her, boot prints and other imperfections damaging the image. As she moved her eyes across the ground, her eyes widened as she noticed a discarded object, a Gameboy Advance. Though it was far away from her, she was sure of its identity. The scratchy Hyoudou Issei on the back written with a black permanent marker was a very familiar sight to her.

To her dismay, the strange little girl was still clamped around her waist and had little intention of letting her go. She idly considered the looks of the few who strolled along during the evening, all thoughtful or otherwise meek and sheepish. She waved at them to move along, then considered what brought her here in the first place. Issei hadn't come home in time. It was far from his normal return around 4 o'clock for an afternoon snack, and completely missing his dinner at six in the evening. His meal still sat cold on the dinner table, waiting for the cheerful child to come and eat it.

She narrowed her eyes at the girl, who most likely knew something about him, then shook her head in disbelief. She didn't want to consider the most insane option in her mind. That the little girl bawling her eyes out on her could possibly be their one and only child. It couldn't be. And to begin with, what would even make such a thing happen to him in the first place? She took a momentary look at the magic circle once more, and sighed, wondering what could possibly inspire this theory of hers besides her old history... If anything, it would at least be worth a shot. She didn't have anything to lose, did she.

Hesitantly, she asked the girl politely to confirm at least part of what was in her mind. "… Issei?" She asked to the girl. Issei's breath hitched and thought that maybe, just maybe she had a chance to at least make her listen to him. She slowly craned her head to face her mother's face, snot and tears making her even more like a total wreck. It was at this point that her mother gasped, the pathetic state of Oda Nobunaga's host pulling her heart strings.

"I-I found this circle mom, a-a-annd I fell in and there was-!" Issei's jaw hanged open, and suddenly he found himself wordless. This gave enough of an impression to the Hyoudou elder, her eyes moving in confused acknowledgement. Learning that part of her brain dead theory was apparently true, which scared her more than the how, she motioned for the child to continue.

'_KID! You can't just say that; she won't believe it_!" Was Nobunaga's response to his attempt in explaining the current situation. Though it was said under Issei's bated breath, it was as if her mother didn't hear it at all as she tilts her head in uncertainty. A look of confusion from her rushed speech was the only expression on her face rather than fear or wariness.

Issei realized as much, and with a rush of adrenaline she told her, "I-It turned me into a girl mom, I don't know how or why, just please believe me!" His voice faltered with each word, and yet there was a certain level of determination regardless. "It's me, ma. It IS—." Issei was cut off by her mother brushing the hair off her face.

"Issei, you don't to be like that..." the mother responded in kind, her face confused but understanding. "I believe you." Issei's eyes widened at her name, and with it the hope that she could finally go home after all of this mess. There was a moment of pause before she couldn't handle it anymore and bawled all over again, pushing the mother to the ground as onlookers watch, amazed. The mother once more told them to move along with their lives then took the time to consider what she just learned. Before continuing, she took the opportunity to take the discarded Game Boy next to her before moving on.

Although she had her own reservations about the concept, she knew, just knew somewhere deep inside that there was no reason for the girl to lie about what she was saying. You can't fake raw emotion like that, it simply cannot be done. And there was a sinking feeling in her stomach that told her to take the risk anyway. With all that in mind, she takes a moment to wake the girl who cried herself to sleep.

"Issei…" She said, catching her attention. She smiles weakly and told her, "Let's go home." Mrs. Hyoudou helped getting Issei to stand up, who could only limp and lean on the side of her mother. They walk home together, Mother and son-turned-daughter- though she still had her reservations about that-, leaving the circle that caused all of this madness behind.

Though Issei thought his mother fooled, Nobunaga knew better. People walking into magic circles one gender and coming out transformed was not accepted in modern society as a viable excuse without sufficient evidence, and even with. Memories could be extracted, mannerisms imitated. Although it may seem as if Issei's mother was at least willing to listen to their reasoning, the mind of Oda Nobunaga, very familiar of treachery and betrayal, had every reason to be cynical about their situation. The public wouldn't simply believe that magic was real, and even if the Hyoudou matriarch did, she would know something was wrong just by being near her. A servant bound in mortal flesh was no trifling thing.

If Issei, poor traumatized Issei, tried to justify his original arguments, and explain why he was now a long haired girl wearing military clothes, he would've dug himself a grave so deep that there was no chance of recovery from the situation. He would learn over time, however. With these experiences, the boy would grow more cunning, more vicious, and more brutal. Although 'she' was more appropriate now, there was no going back at this point. Issei was no longer a man, a boy. He was her own spitting image, a successor, even if knowing that all of it was done unwillingly.

But even before she became her host, she saw in him a spark of greatness so similar to the monkey that she trusted with her life in her time. The knowledge the grail would normally give servants came despite the nonexistence of such a thing around. Even though the knowledge was incomplete, given the obviously magical nature of the world she was in now, she knew just enough to tell that something was very wrong. A ghost of a mage, no grail, the drive that made her possess Issei, and her icing on the cake, another abnormality within her very own host and master.

Nobunaga didn't consider this a coincidence. A boy capable of hosting heroic spirits walking straight into a magical circle in broad daylight in the middle of a public park was far too conspicuous to be mere coincidences alone. In Nobunaga's experience, these coincidences did not exist; something or some_one_ had to be moving the pieces around in such a manner. Luck was just another factor in the grand scheme of things, and as such could be faked or mitigated.

She had been granted a second chance. A new destiny in life was ripe for the taking. And thus, she would make the most out of it. Not for conquest or bloodshed, oh no, she had enough of that in her time. Her dream of a unified Japan had been fulfilled long ago, and Japan had become one of the world's most prosperous countries. United and glorious enough that she didn't need to interfere with it so directly anymore. She was free to do whatever she pleased, and that, was fine.

**I'll have you know that I haven't written an actual side story yet. The original side story will eventually be transferred to its proper location, but I haven't thought one up yet. So just enjoy this for now.**

Side story-

"Wait a minute, Issei-kun/Shidou-san, you were a girl this entire time!?" Was the equally shocked reactions of the two reunited friends pointing at each other at the latter responder's home. See, Issei Hyoudou, former man, and now a female teenage high school student very elaborately hiding her current sex, didn't know that her old childhood best friend from long ago, Irina Shidou, was a girl this entire time.

Although to Shidou's credit, she had been somewhat expecting Issei to be surprised that she was a girl at first anyway. What she wasn't expecting when she walked into the Hyoudou household was to see that that the charming young boy she had grown in love in their short time together was a woman as well. Considering that she had him fooled by accident in the past... 'I believe the Buddhists would call this Karma,' Shidou thought dryly.

Issei herself was surprised. Despite becoming used to the shift in her life since that fateful day almost 10 years ago, part of the reason she even went to the park that afternoon was to mourn the loss of her friendship. The fact that the boy she grew up and played with all those years was a girl this entire time had put an entirely new take on the interactions they had together growing up. The only reply she could muster at first was a bright red blush that covered her entire face.

"I um… yes. Yes, I was, Shidou," Issei said, pulling her cap down to cover her face. This was her best option if she didn't want to bring into attention the powers she now possessed, or how she got them. Although she only held a mild resemblance to her former face back then, age had simply made some to conclude that the boy from back then had matured in a different way.

_And something_. _You'll probably see something like this when the actual scene comes by._

**I guess something like that. Again, I don't know much about the actual events in question, so I'm totally out of luck in that regard.**

**Oh yeah, I'm thinking of only putting the pre-canon stuff for a good 5-10 chapters. They should only be there to establish a few character relationships like explaining how Nobu would befriend her host over the years.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Adaptation

**Have you tried making a story while still farming every inch of the current event? Yeah. Um. I made people wait a lot, didn't I? Oh no. This might've been a mistake. **

***2 Nobunagas from the summer banner later...* Writing this trainwreck was not a mistake. Bullshit strong catalyst, don't nerf. **

**I still feel really tired after editing this late at night, so I'll begin work on the next chapter tomorrow I guess.**

Mother and son-turned-daughter arrived at the Hyoudou household a little while afterwards. Alhough Issei wanted to confront her father alone, it occurred to her that his father was more than likely to be more irrational during the night time and would be very likely to not listen to him at all. If he were to be anyone but Issei Hyoudou, however, he knew that _he himself_ would be the irrational one. Asking his mother what they'll do about it, her mother moved her face slowly to face her. A cold stare came from the mother's blank and stoic face, caused by the stress of the day, before she replied coolly.

"Don't worry about it too much. Just go eat your dinner, and I'll talk to your father about this. Don't worry, I can handle this, okay?" She smiled afterwards. She takes her keys out of her back pocket and unlocks the door, opening it with a loud squeak. Walking down the hallway was the father moving to greet them both, though obviously expressing confusion to the girl walking in with her instead of Issei.

The girl who was still clinging on to her mother's side at that point excused herself and jogged towards to the dining room, doing her best to avoid her father's questioning gaze. She walked over to the plate reserved for her earlier and sighed, poking the burger meat with her fork. She went through so much today, and she was ready to hit the hay at any moment.

Excusing herself from the table, she walked over to the bathroom sink to brush her teeth. It was here that she looked in the mirror to reveal exactly what she was expecting. The new 'her', the fabricated lie that it seemed she was forced to live with for the rest of her life. It wasn't Nobu's- er, Nobunaga's intentions, sure, but there wasn't enough kindness to go through that could simply erase the trauma caused by what she had witnessed and felt just earlier. And it certainly reflected her current appearance, if the grimy and oily look to her face was any indication. Deep eyebags intensified her sorry state, dirt smearing the left side of her face. Issei, put simply, looked horrible.

She washed her face afterwards, and couldn't resist sighing after seeing the face of Nobunaga on the reflection still instead of her own. "As if a little soap and water could wash all my problems away..." She muttered bitterly. Wiping her face with a towel, she cleans up the leftover toothpaste on the sink and moved on.

Walking up the stairs, she opened up the door and locked it, clearly wanting some privacy to herself to reflect and rest alone with no interruptions. She took off her clothes to see the telltale sign of a young girl's body underneath. She asked Nobunaga about removing the uniform earlier, and Nobunaga would tell her the right way to remove it and clean it and so on like a general to their soldiers. Taking the sheathed sword to the right side of her bed as Nobunga had instructed her ('_No vassal of mine will go weaponless during an ambush!' The ghost girl justified.)_, she stands up from her sitting position to take a better look at herself from the mirror in her room.

'_Fancy looking at yourself, retainer?'_ The demon king asked her, voice sounding cheeky. '_I don't really blame you. I think I was a looker at all ages after all.' _She laughed a little to herself afterwards.

"It isn't anything like that, Nobunaga. If I have to be saddled with your body for the rest of my life then at least I'll try to get used to it." She looks down below her, the differences in her physiology now plain for the eyes to see. She took a moment to look all over her body, shocked that Oda Nobunaga had a surprisingly modern take in fashion and not the kind of overdone attire that Nobunaga seemed to prefer. To her credit, however, it wasn't as if anyone would see what was underneath all of that clothing anyway, with all the attempts during Nobunaga's time resulting in the untimely death of the attempted lechers involved. Issei wanted to ask what happened to the clothes she was wearing before meeting Nobunaga. The Demon King replied meekly that they just so happened to morph into the military uniform she was wearing after the transformation, and that she didn't know how to reverse it like how a mahou shoujo would.

Issei looked at the long haired girl staring back at him with a blush on his face. Taking a close look at her, the girl was wearing an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts with her slender body. She wore all of this with a flustered look, arms covering her chest in an already lost battle for modesty. If it weren't plainly obvious that the girl he was staring at was herself all along, she would've been the kind of girl that seemed untouchable by the rest of the school populace, the shy and reclusive type. The kind of crush he would've kept for the rest of _his_ school life.

With a heavy sigh, she jumped over her bed and bouncing once after landing. She immediately covered herself with her blanket. She was just about ready to collapse at this point, feeling very tired and taxed after learning so many things, enduring a tragedy and began fearing for the worst in the future. Thinking heavily of one last thing cautiously, she asked Nobunaga a question.

"Is there really no chance of me becoming myself again?" To this, Nobunaga pointed out, confused by the question. "_But aren't you yourself already?'_

"I know what you mean, Nobunaga. I just don't think I could feel comfortable looking in the mirror without seeing 'me' anymore," She said with apprehension.

'_Ah. Well, no not quite. Although I may have transformed myself into a boy once in my youth," _Issei's face brightened slightly at this revelation. '_I've checked how it would react to your body earlier when considering alternatives, but the simple fact is that there's nothing I could really do. Your body simply 'developed' something that would prevent me from working it in for longer periods of time." _She sighed at her observation, figuring that it really was too good to be true.

'_Hey, don't feel too sad about it. It would've just turned you into a boy version of me instead of your original body, so it's not like that was a real option to begin with." _Figuring that there wasn't much else to discuss about, Issei shut her eyes, ready to sleep. '_I might consider teaching you that spell anyway, if you think there's a need for such a form in the future. A just in case measure, since you might need them for physical activities' _Afterwards, Nobunaga followed after Issei, metaphorically taking the empty space behind the girl.

Husband and wife stared at each other for a few moments, until Miki Hyoudou closed the door behind her and leaned against it, releasing a heavy sigh. Taking a bottle of water she very quickly took from the fridge, she chugged all of the liquid down her throat as she walked back to the front door. It was at this moment that the father finally broke the silence.

"Who was that girl, Miki? Where's Issei?" The father asked her, confusion and frustration evident in his face.

"Gorou, that girl _is _Issei," she said, raising her hand to deflect whatever response her husband had to say, giving her room to speak some more. "I know I shouldn't be relying on a gut feeling to figure it out, I really know that. But something told me that she knew something, that there was something inside of her, that _is_ our one and only son." She released a breath she didn't know she was holding inside of her, then shook her head.

Gorou Hyoudou paced back and forth for a bit, before breathing in harshly. "Oh yeah? Then prove it. Tell me what could possibly turn our one and only son into a little girl who looks nothing like _him_, _you_ or _me_!" He said the last three words with a touch of venom and his palm quickly met his face. The mother gave him a tired look, before continuing on.

"Gorou... There's just something about her, you know. I haven't asked her any questions yet, but something deep inside my gut is telling me trust her. It's just- the way she walked, composed herself and her behaviour in general... everything just screamed Issei to me..." She sighed heavily once more and straightened her posture. "I found his game boy right next to her for god's sake!"

"It's either magic or some dumb sci-fi alternatives, _Mister_ Hyoudou! And somehow, I'm finding myself believing the first option more and more." She raised her forearm over her forehead. "Either... Issei was kidnapped by some organization and sent a red herring to deceive us -the girl eating on the diner table- or the girl's just a street kid who just so inexplicably knew about Issei's history, friends, family and so on. And you know what, either way, they're all equally insane! I don't know what reality is anymore! I don't know how to describe it, Gorou, I just don't..."

The father, now deeply concerned, responded. "Miki... I trust your judgement in this. Believe me. But you can't just walk straight home with her and tell that she's the one we were looking for. Okay?" Straightening his glasses, he continued. "You need to give me something. I wasn't around the park when you went out looking for him, so what was it that made her so special?"

"Oh Gorou... Just give her a chance. I really don't know how to describe it anymore, just that I know something that you don't." With that, she walked away from the door frame, motioning her husband to come follow her. She walked to the stairs to the bedrooms, and stepped on them one by one tiredly.

"Fine. I don't know what you were going on about either, but I'll trust your word for it. When will we ask her those questions anyway?" He asked, following after with a stilted pace.

"Tomorrow. She should be upstairs by now, so that's why I'm walking there with you. To give her some warning," she said to her husband. Shoes clacking on the wooden staircase, she knocked on the door.

"Issei? Issei, it's us. We need to talk about something." Issei Hyoudou rose up tiredly, walking briskly towards the door as she opens the lights for her room. Opening the bedroom door, she looks up to see her mother, who she beamed at with bright eyes, and her father, whom she shrinks away from and avoids eye contact with. The father adjusts his collar briefly in a guilty manner, and signals his wife to go on ahead.

"Issei, I needed to give you something before you went back to sleep." She goes through one of her front pockets with with her hands, and gives the girl her Game Boy. Issei gasped at the item, thinking that something had happened and she had left it behind at the park for someone else to take it. A tear would fall from her face as she would reminisce on the story behind it, a gift from her close friend Shidou for her birthday. She flipped it around to reveal the name sloppily written on the side, with scratched off plastic making the methodology behind its creation obvious. His father would notice this, gauging her reaction.

"Issei, your father and I agreed to ask you a few questions tomorrow morning on the dinner table. It's to verify that you really are our son. Okay? I trust you enough, but we still have to make sure some of the things you tell us are consistent." Her mother said this all with a smile, though not sure enough to alleviate any of Issei's concerns.

"Succeed, and we'll do our best to accommodate you and take care of you as we always would. We'd handle everything together as a family, and I'd be damned if we didn't at least try," she said confidently, trying to psyche her daughter up in preparation for the next day.

"But... ma, what... what if I fail? What if I can't prove it, if I can't tell you for certain that I'm not him?" Issei looked up to her mother at eye level, ready to tear up once more in fear. "Would you just throw me out? Pretend I never went in here and acted as the son who went missing? Are you going to do that to me ma!?" With every word she threw out, it made it quite clear what sort of mental state she was in. Knowing what was happening once again, she hugged the little girl that needed healing of the mind. Her father approached cautiously as well, and nervously began to rub her head affectionately.

"If you don't want to lose that chance, Issei, then do your best to take care of yourself tomorrow. Alright? You only have so much time before then, so just worry about it when it comes." Kissing Issei on the cheek, she walks down the stairs.

Finally understanding what was going on with his wife, the father was ready to let go of the door, but not before telling the girl one last thing. "Believe in yourself, then, Issei. There's no one else's fault at risk, but yours. So do your best tomorrow if you don't want to disappoint us."

Closing the door behind him, Gorou Hyoudou left the room. Issei fell on her bed face down, not quite ready for the mess that would unfold the day after. Closing her eyes for the last time that day, she wondered to herself. Who was Oda Nobunaga, really? A man, or a demon? Despite being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, the person that she met did not at all fit the description that she had known for years. She was too eccentric, so spunky and modern that the image she had for such a maniac did not fit her at all.

What could possibly make a man or woman, from a fool so incompetent that one of their tutors fell into despair so great that they killed themselves in anguish, to such a brutal demon king? Her legacy still reigned hundreds of years after the fact, whose subordinates united the country long after her death, falling apart to factionalism until the final unification of the nation by one Tokugawa Ieyasu. Indeed, she couldn't understand it herself. Oda Nobunaga's tirade against unmoving traditions sardonically explained that this was simply her way of expressing teenage rebellion. Petty.

Issei rolled over and over her bed, unease and a complex feeling on her face. She moved a little bit more before lying prone, her tired body finally catching up to her. The fires of Mount Hiei left not a physical marking, no scars or burn wounds around her body. All she could recognize from the earlier events was the pain, the inferno he had burned in, black smoke and soot flaying her alive. Sleep could only come to take her in the early hours of the morning, a brief reprieve.

She was crying, tears of bitter regret dripping down on the wooden floor. But her strong emotions weren't motivated by sadness, oh no, but were those feelings of pent-up anger. She was furious at the world, her family, and worst of all, herself. Ice cold stares, glaring and piercing her vulnerable state, judged her from every corner of the room, disdain obvious from the way everyone looked at her.

After seemingly an eternity, she brushed past all the finely dressed men and women to earn her privacy. Breathing heavily, she slammed a fist on the wall, barely making a dent on it, reminding her of her weaknesses. It hurt her a lot, stinging like a wasp on the fist that she pushed into the wall, but the pain was irrelevant. She was used to it at this point, and so she continued bashing the poor wall into oblivion, finally smashing the wood furnishings wide open.

The fury she felt to the world had watered down slightly, rage and adrenaline no longer filling her every being. She concentrated it to more appropriate targets. She barely knew the man she had cursed, after all, the man called 'father' only shared his disapproval the majority of the time. Not once did she remember a point in time when she had been seen as anything but a disappointment. A waste of space smearing the Oda name, dishonoring it by her mere existence.

Her mother, her siblings, her _entire family _stayed away from her. The last time she had seen the jackass of a father, all he had done was titling her of all people as the new Oda clan head, to the looks of horror from her friends and family. Why her, why her, why her... "WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME...!" She shouted to herself, mind finally losing its grip from her unbridled rage.

Why... Why the most useless child, the so called 'Fool of Owari Province'!? She cursed everyone once more; her father, her mother, her family, everyone! She had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, so why make her take the banner!? After releasing the volley of curses, everything she wanted to say to the silent courtyard and the poor wall she had torn apart, all that was left was a tired smile. Grinning widely all of sudden, she sat down legs crossed, palms leaning on the floor behind her.

It was the first time in a long while that she had such a smile of content. And it wasn't to be the last. When she cut her treasonous Uncle's head clean off, she was a devil in the night. When she crushed the other fools in Owari, and became its sole leader. When she had laid low her foe's armies, their divided regiments followed her every command. When she had kindly told the Shogun she was in power, and when she saw the potential of foreign weapons and armaments, guns and the change they could represent. When she would burn Mount Heiei to the ground, every living person who had lived there died. When she watched clan leaders commit suicide before her, their skulls taken from their corpses and repurposed for drinking utility. And when she had finally died, her sword lodged into her chest as the temple of Honnouji burned, melting her flesh and killing her slowly, still smiling gleefully.

As it is, however, there wasn't much else for her to do. The disapproving whispers surrounded her everywhere she went, vicious words from faces that she couldn't see directly. 'Nobunaga the fool, Nobunaga the daft, Nobunaga the idiot', they said, and over again. Bah! They would learn the folly of their words. Either they learn to respect their betters, or barring that, fear them. If they still wished to spit on her face and bark like the dogs that they were, then they may also learn the meaning of death. She stood, and planned to make her next move.

Issei Hyoudou woke up with a smile on his face. He had a dream, but very quickly he forgot what it was. He tried to grasp at the images still within his mind, but even that was a lost effort as they slipped away from him as well. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned, and walked over to the chest to get dressed, but not before landing his eyes on the uniform and cap left behind from the previous day. Confusion turned to horror, as he takes a quick look down, and finally everything clicked.

He froze, and suddenly feeling weakness on her legs, landed on the ground as her knees bent inwards. Whimpering quietly, tears were ready to fall to the floor once again, but were interrupted by a sudden loss of feeling, a numb sensation of being puppeted by a third party. She suddenly pushed herself back up and shed her tears, and faced the window, sunlight pouring through.

"Boy," her mouth moved. "We all die someday. All the pain that defines who we are leads us all to the same destination. If I killed your parents, and I won't, there wouldn't much to be done about it, because at the end of the day, they'd keel over long before you would. Remember that." Issei didn't have much to say in response, and could only move her head slightly downwards.

"Pain, Injury, and Hurting shouldn't mean anything to you by now. They don't feel so good, correct?" She continued, staring motionlessly at the glass. His right arm moved to pinch the left, and it didn't hurt that much. It stung, sure, and once before in her life it might have been very painful, but compared to what she felt in that infinite hellfire, it was nothing. "Doesn't hurt much anymore, does it? Sometimes, Issei, hardship could make us stronger. I'm proud of you handling the pain so well back then, even if I wasn't very proud of it. But let yourself learn from this, and you can adapt, and overcome any obstacle. Become harder, faster, and stronger than you ever were. You can do that, can't you?"

Issei wordlessly nodded her possessed neck slightly, even with the iron fist control that moved her entire body. Satisfied, Oda Nobunaga smiled for a bit, but suddenly her face contorted in irritation. A frown moved her features, as she would suddenly move her hands in a clapping motion in an attempt to kill from what Issei could gather to be a mosquito.

If Issei had any real control over her body at this point, she would have palmed her face in exasperation. As it is, however, she could only resign her fate to watching a grown woman in her childhood body attempt to kill a particularly persistent insect. Finally killing the offender, she moved back to her original position and realized what she had just done, potentially losing the tension and respect she had earned in the room. Facing the mirror once more with a hastily made serious look on her face, she continued despite the bead of sweat rolling down on one side of her body.

"Oh right, something about pain. Um..." Oda Nobunaga said, continuing her monologue as if she had never stopped. "I believe you fear me because I possess power to hurt you and your loved ones, correct? Then what should you do?" She asked.

Issei thought over what she had just heard, mind racing to find a solution, but to no avail. His left eye teared up in frustration as he waited for her answer, all out of words she could say. Nobunaga realized as much, and with exuberance, replied.

"You should get stronger!" Nobunaga advised cheerfully, then immediately took a serious tone. "Do you actually believe that crying or living in fear would solve your problems? Will you escape your despair, or suffer inside the cage you've constructed for yourself? Everything you've gone through so far would have all been for nothing, if you actually plan on doing exactly what I've said, Issei, and don't dare deny that!" With the last words said and done, a fuzzy feeling spread across Issei's left hand. A whirring sound was heard, and suddenly the sword and sheath flew from their positions into her hand.

She points the blade towards the window, posing coolly like every good Shonen protagonist should. Taking a moment to breathe, she resumed her speech. "You hold great strength within yourself, experiencing the burning embers of hell melting your skin, and nothing in this world could possibly compare. Make the most out of this curse you've gained, Issei, because nothing is earned for free. The oppurtunity you have is far beyond what most people will give you in everyday life. Your future must be seized, and conquered like all the lands I've united!"

Nobunaga's voice grew with every sentence, the passion in her eyes sending Issei into a state of awe. Her words echoed and bounced all around Issei's mind. She gave her a goal, a destination, and most importantly, an answer. She had almost given in earlier, the fear in her mind replaced by a feeling of shame and ingenuity. Feeling Issei's burst of inspiration, she grins, satisfied that her words finally got to them.

Nobunaga lowered the sword, content. She adds, "Well, if anything Issei, you should think of me less as a jinx and more of a boon. Why should I hurt your parents when I could help protect them, right? There's nothing for me to gain, you know, and it might be an interesting new experience. I've seen too much wanton slaughter in my lifetime, anyway." Smiling happily, a moment of calm was shared between master and servant.

Suddenly, three knocks banged on the bedroom door. Nobunaga was taken aback, falling into a heap on the floor and ruining the air of awe she had carefully cultivated. She very quickly puts the sword in sheath back where it flew from, and took her sweet little time to fix herself up.

"Is there something wrong, dear?" Asked Issei's mother, concerned by the sound of tumbling that she had heard inside her son's room. Nobunaga jumped off the bed and replied, "Nothing, ma, just playing around with my voice..." Standing straight, she returns control to Issei, but not before saying one last thing.

"Don't disappoint me." Nobunaga whispered. Expecting the change now, Issei was able to keep herself from slamming face down on the floor. Pushing down her tumultuous feelings, she takes a deep breath and stood up straight. The phantom pains were crushed under her foot, motivated by a feeling to get stronger, but even more by her drive to make Nobu proud. It all comes down to this, it seemed.

Sighing deeply, she runs down the stairs to join her parents on the dinner table, her mother moving to the side to let her jump down. When the sound of a feminine yelp reaches her ears, she palms one eye and coughs to hide the giggle that rose up her throat while a fuzzy feeling embraced her chest. Even if the girl wasn't quite the same Issei anymore on the outside, she felt closure knowing that she was pretty much the same person on the inside. Moving to help the girl who had fallen and couldn't get up, they walk towards the dining room.

There had been a long talk at breakfast with the whole family. The warning signs that had been going off on her head the day before were mostly exaggerated, since there wasn't much pressure hanging heavily on them in the first place. They asked Issei all sorts of questions ranging from the mundane such as asking her about the day earlier, what she ate that morning, and about her best friend Shidou who was the motivation behind Issei's escapade the evening before. Then, they went to the more unsettling, like what it felt like to walk around with male genitalia, and to assess Issei's knowledge of women's anatomy, lacking it may be from not actually covering that much yet so far.

The latter two were sarcastically suggested by Gorou the evening before. It came up anyway to his horror once he realized that his beloved wife would actually go ahead with it. His logic being that a sloppy imitator would probably have to know about this kind of crap, or something. This remark was paraphrased, since all was said under his breath. The heavy blushes possessed by son-turned-daughter when Issei had to answer those questions were interesting, to say the least.

It didn't quite occur to Issei at first that there was a 'gap' between her crotch, until her nervousness made her move her thighs together unconsciously. When she first addressed it, mother and father looked at each other for a moment before the mother began to explain. "Issei... women don't have penises. You know that right?" Nobunaga declined to answer some of the questions asked to Issei upon his request, her reasoning being that making Issei seemingly clueless about them, which he was, was more realistic than him suddenly knowing the ins and outs of a woman's body, which he had seem the day before but didn't think much of in the first place.

Moving on, although Issei's memory was not bad per se, Nobunaga still had to interject the answers he needed to remember that were forgotten sometimes. His lack of knowledge regarding certain subjects (hint hint) were sufficient enough to conclude that yes, the girl was Issei, and they had so much to do in order to make up for not believing her, or at least her father did. Mother raised her fist in triumph, finally winning one of her many arguments with Issei's father. Noticing the looks of confusion and indignation from the rest of the family, she lowers her hand, coughing into it, and motioned to continue the discussion.

After his interrogation and subsequent tearful apologies from his parents, the conversation moved into a more awkward direction. Even if Issei had transformed into a girl, unless his records had magically changed as well, there would be issues regarding paperwork and so on, and they couldn't be changed so easily. Until Issei was twenty and above, there was nothing that could be done legally to change his gender on all legal deocuments. When they raised the extreme option of surgery, Nobunaga took control in order to shut the option down. She rather liked her body, and she would be damned if imperfect surgical techniques modified her body in any fashion.

The observation of her parents was that (Nobunaga speaking as) Issei disagreed with the surgery option because it would have complicated things too much explaining why they would need to fashion a penis onto their daughter to avoid changing legal documents when they could have listed her down as female in the first place, or otherwise questioning the legal and moral accountability of turning a young innocent little girl into a man without either consent or being of age, and a maybe a few more issues that would turn this into a mess that I wouldn't touch in any fashion. On the other hand, changing her documents when she was already listed down as a boy in just about everywhere, and explaining to the government or officials why their son was suddenly a girl and avoiding the very real possibility of a private or government organization taking interest in such a biological conundrum and putting him under the knife anyway, was best avoided. If their son could spontaneously turn into a girl by walking into a definitely magical circle, then yes, there were probably secret organizations all across the world, a higher likelihood of them being magical in nature, and they really didn't want to know what they were like. There was still a whole lot more to go through, and both mother and father concluded that the hilariously comic book scenario was preferable than just about anything else. They began rubbing their developing headaches, while Issei and Nobunaga watched with morbid fascination as their moods changed rapidly from all sorts of different emotions.

Although in a more practical sense, surgery would've impaired Issei's ability to fight, if anything. Even if there wasn't any immediate need to defend herself at the moment, Oda Nobunaga's mana signature was so distinct that any of the local wildlife would be attracted to her like moths to a light. If they were to attack her while recovering from surgery, there would be a very real risk of them dying. Thus, if it were up to Nobunaga to make a decision, she would try her best to teach the boy the spell she learned to turn herself into a man in her youth instead, the one she had mentioned just the day before. It wouldn't last for very long with Issei's lack of expertise in magic -in fact, she doubted he knew what magic spells were like to begin with-, but it would be a sufficient enough disguise so long as no serious damage broke the illusion.

As a young child, Issei didn't really understand the difference between boys and girls. To him, boys were boys, and girls were girls. Becoming a member of the opposite sex was more disturbing to her simply because she looked like a clone of Oda Nobunaga more than her original self. Without experiencing puberty and thus defining her gender in the complicated fashion only puberty could do, she didn't have much of an attachment to the little tube dangling from his former body. With Nobunaga's body, she barely looked like 'Issei Hyoudou' to begin with, and that to her was far worse since at least Ranma Saotome for example held some physical resemblance to his original form. It was like she was a completely different person.

Speaking of Nobunaga, another problem involved the fact that, again, Oda Nobunaga only held a very passing resemblance to Issei Hyoudou. They looked like each other slightly, sure, the features of an effeminate Issei Hyoudou bleeding in from time to time whenever she looked every other direction, but no sane man would connect the dots and conclude that she was actually Issei to begin with a hundred percent of the time. Her red eyes were also not natural or acceptable at all in the majority of circles, though thankfully contact lenses could rectify it to a non factor.

Issei himself had no idea what his parents were talking about half the time. The stressed expressions on their faces stopped him from interrupting the two grown ups, though anytime she asked her mother or father, they would just tell her to not worry about it. He didn't feel ready to ask Nobunaga any more questions either, as the risk of his parents, already occupied with their discussion, looking at him talk to himself being high enough that he wouldn't even try.

The sword laid on the center of the table after her parents asked him to get it, and the topic turning to what they should do about it. The discussion had gotten so tense that Issei's parents sent him to his room, trying to shield him from the topics they now discussed. Issei laid back on his bed, listening to the muffled echoes of his parents arguing with each other. His Game Boy reminded him heavily of the events that had occurred the previous day, still embittering his palate with the knowledge that she held onto it as she slowly fell unconscious the moment she entered the circle's inner world and she didn't feel like reading a book or manga, so there wasn't much of anything to pass the time with. She suddenly recalled that she saw an eerie image as her vision blackened, and wondered who that person was.

It occurred to him then that Nobunaga didn't tell her the exact method of gaining strength, only encouraging the concept to her. He tried out some pushups, and was surprised to find they were easier than when she first tried them in her Physical Education classes for the 3rd Grade. Back then, he nearly blacked out around the 10s but this time they were so easy, he quit not out of fatigue but boredom, losing count somewhere in the hundreds and hadn't even broken a sweat. Sit ups, stretches, and any other basic workout regiment was far too simple for her and did not pressure her to do much beyond them. They would be useful for warm ups, but not much else.

He kept on doing them not for exercise, but to keep her mind from wandering to the previous day's events, the mental scarring still too tender for her to handle. She didn't do all of it consciously, however, and a part of her suggested that Nobunaga had a hand in making sure that her mind didn't think of any traumatic events while she recovered. She could ask about that later.

Lunchtime arrived late for Issei, and Issei found her new appetite to be simply insatiable. Food and drink disappeared down her throat like a black hole, and always let her be ready for seconds no matter how much she had eaten. There was no motivation created by hunger, however, as none of the food she swallowed gave her the feeling of fullness that would normally occur. Afterwards, a certain familiar feeling struck her nethers, and he made his way to the bathroom in a brisk pace. His mother, noticing this, ran towards the bathroom to avert the disaster that would have occured, as she begins to elaborate more on the discussion they had earlier about women's anatomy. His father noticed it as well, covered his face with the newspaper on hand and began to ignore the traumatizing lecture that echoed from the bathroom.

"Now Issei, I need you to understand what a woman's vagina is, what it does and especially how you urinate with it. You can't just stand up and squirt it out, you need to sit down on the toilet bowl and let it flow from there..." Clearly, Missus Hyoudou was giving the newly minted girl part 1 of 'the talk', if the growing blush on her face was evidence enough. She guides Issei to sit on the toilet seat, helping her remove the newly made girl's pants. Issei asked Nobunaga her thoughts in their shared inner mind, her response being a deadpan, '_I didn't need to go through this,'_ saying with an imaginary face with no discernible emotion.

Dinner was gloomy, but a sense of optimism shone through regardless. It was silent in the Hyoudou household, each of the eaters lost in their own thoughts. Issei left after the meal, still thinking of ways to become stronger, knowing that the typical motions would mean nothing to him. She flipped through some of her favorite manga, looking for inspiration from the hot-blooded Shounen protagonists. Sometimes Nobunaga would take control, pausing to reread an interesting page. Issei let Nobunaga do so sometimes, answering the curious questions that came from Nobunaga's mouth whenever they came. At least they had some similar tastes.

Taking a bath was surprisingly sane, except for the hair products given to him that his mother insisted she use. Not much had changed as far as her usual bathing went like, but afterwards was the problem. Drying and combing her hair was a questionable offer, although his mother helped to fix it, but it still took far longer than washing did. It had been a very messy tangle with long strips of hair covering just about every portion of the bathroom floor, but once all had been said and done she looked even more like Oda Nobunaga. Taking a close look at the mirror offered by her mother, she couldn't resist saying that one phrase that came to her mind.

"Pretty..." Issei said in a daze. Realizing what she had said, Issei put her hands to her face and covered it in shame. Seeing the child retreat into herself, her mother jumped into action, embracing the young girl. "Accepting the fact that you're a girl now doesn't change who you are, Issei," Mother said. A muffled 'that is' met her ears, and she responded warmingly. "You're still yourself, and nothing could possibly change that. What you are on the inside is what counts, and we love you for what you are at all times, even looking like this." Processing the words her mother said, Issei felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders, as she began to cry softly on her mother's arms, a moment that seemingly lasted forever.

Her body was close enough in size to her previous form that she could simply wear the clothing in her closet. They were a little baggy, but they fit just right all the same. Pulling her pants up and sloppily putting on her shirt, she jumped on top of the bed and closed her eyes.

She fell asleep after hours of tossing and turning again, slowly gaining rest by listening to her parents in the other room. Hugging one of her pillows, another between her legs, and one elevating her back, Issei finally lost consciousness. She dreamt anxiously of the future she held, suspense filling just about every motion to be had.

The house was silent, it's occupants resting peacefully. In the early hours of morning, something scratched against the front door. When no response came, the sound of scrabbling against a lock came, and the door opened slowly. A monster with eight limbs entered the home, hungry for prey and pulled in by the very distinctive magical signature. Hyoudou Issei's body itched for some action, sensing the aura of the demon that sneaked around their household. Oda Nobunaga braced herself, and prepared to fight.

**That's the second chapter. I've got one last chapter before I will no longer have anymore original content to salvage. The pre-canon bullshit would probably last a good 3 chapters more, like I said, and once more I reiterate that they will involve Nobunaga forging a very close friendship, character development, training in private, and some more stuff I can't really think of right now. Better write that on my notes, I guess. Give the next the chapter another week or two. It's almost the opening of classes. (Or was, just saying as you could probably tell that there were some changes to the script. Don't worry, they're going to be mild until say, chapter 4 or 5.)**

**A clothes shopping scene will probably happen in the future. Issei's mother would bring Issei with her to fill in Issei's room with a mixture of masculine (for the ruse) and feminine (whenever the ruse isn't really needed). They'd probably conclude that the kid was tomboyish, and I figured that Issei wasn't the type to go shopping with his parents, so the people shouldn't pry too deeply. School... I'd justify him not going to school for a while as being sick, then having to go back on the monday after, I guess? I'd make Issei either unpopular or unremarkable during the first few years, but once reaching junior and senior high, would develop a reputation for being really hot. Both sexes. Thank Avenger Nobu for her bifauxnen features. **

**I _am_ watching the anime, by the way. I'm just doing it alone, whether it be in the toilet or in the privacy of my own room. *wink wink* Not like my parents would've cared much, in any case. They ignored the times I've watched some of the spicier episodes of Fairy Tail back in the day, mainly the first four OVAs, and Kill la Kill. The nipples might be a bit too much, though. **

**That said, no schedule. That's the only thing that killed my ability to make this the first time around. I cannot effing believe that it's almost been a year, holy hell. Just enjoy the revised side story, I've expanded it a bit more since I felt like it went nowhere the first time around.**

**Side story-**

Issei didn't know if it was conscious decision on her part, but she wanted to resist the urge to bring the distinctive black cap that Oda Nobunaga always wore. It's not like she didn't like the hat, oh no, she loved it as much as Nobu did. She was going to the beach with her friends, anonymously on her part, not cosplaying in a convention or something. It also brought the small possibility that an enemy could recognize this distinctive feature and move to potentially attack her.

Judging it silently, she surrenders to her instincts, and hastily stuffs the hat into her duffle bag. It wasn't like a random stray would attack her out of nowhere, anyway, with how dangerous she and her friends were. Looking around the room, she pauses to reflect her life leading up to this point. The ups and downs, puberty, an old friend, and the boisterous demon king sleeping soundly inside her mind. She wondered what life would have been like if she hadn't met Nobu that day in the park, since as clear as the sun during the day she was destined for something else before, looking at the red gauntlet she had materialized on her arm. She dispelled it and moved on.

Twirling a hand on her red locks, mirror reflecting more European features and a more mature appearance, she thought she looked great. The Demon King skill she inherited from Nobunaga didn't necessarily possess the ability to modify her facial features, but some more magic tricks (that I won't elaborate on) helped to make the image before her. Hearing the shouting of her mother downstairs that her friends were waiting, she picks up the bag, and gets ready to jump down. Looking back one last time, she finally relents upon hearing his mother's voice shout her name one more time, she jogs down the stair with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3 - Poking and Prodding

**Rewriting the first scene from the original story was a pain in the ass. There wasn't much I could actually change, since spooky monsters are by definition, very flat characters. As a result, I felt really bored writing the fleshy piece of shit. If this would delay the story by quite a bit, I apologize for that.**

**In any case, this was delayed because of me trying to multitask FGO, TF2 and writing this all at the same time. Studying for school thankfully doesn't fully use up all of my time, so that part should be okay. In other words, I procrastinated. I'll probably be very busy for this school year, so expect a similar uodate schedule consistently for the rest of the year, but maybe without too much of the 'bad' kind of procrastination.**

**Update 15th of August, 2019. I have added the side story. Priority number one will now be the next chapter. At least in the context of my hobby activities, anyway. I'm busy at school too. T-T**

Stray devils were a pest in places where devils dwelled. From the conception of the evil pieces system, they became far worse than what any had imagined. Rating games often encouraged devils to seek the strongest champions to join their peerages, to be reincarnated as a devil and enhance their latent and untapped powers. Oftentimes, their personality was overlooked for their martial, mental, or magical power. Any sort of moral compass had never played into the equation, and thus their hubris had released an evil they had never thought would come into fruition.

By the time the devils realized the danger in giving out power to those unscrupulous and insane, the damage had been done. Hundreds of thousands of devils who held neither loyalty nor understanding towards their leaders, either sneaking out or killing them, had been released to the world unchecked. All those who didn't, and knew something like this would happen, were ordered that all stray devils be killed on sight, and strict warnings were given to all those who held evil pieces. They feared for the worst, with such loose cannons presenting a very real risk of unveiling the carefully made masquerade they had nurtured for millennia.

Still, there remain devils either incredibly stupid and daring, thus putting the hefty risk of mutiny far from their minds. The world of devils was such that prestige meant everything, and the most prestige could only be gained through one method; rating games. Essentially being duels between two devils involving an incredibly elaborate life sized chess board and members of a devil's peerage representing the pieces, this sort of tournament remained the most consistent form of promotion in the world of devils. Although there existed alternatives to rise up the meritocratic system that devils had, they were either too tedious, or required warfare which devils had not experienced in hundreds of years. Thus, this left the dumb and dumber to pick up the scraps and take risks that should have never been there in the first place.

One such stray was walking merrily towards the Hyoudou residence, attracted by the incredibly delectable smell of the child sleeping inside. Like a massive spider, the eight-legged and six-eyed monster scuttled through the house. It crawled not unlike the insect it resembled so unsettlingly, its corrupted flash swishing and mashing against each other with every little motion.

Once, the creature had been an ordinary human being. Perhaps it might have been beautiful or handsome, but now, no such statements could be made. Paper-thin flesh stretched over its many bones, blotchy rashes coating its eerily shiny and pale skin, formed from months away from sunlight. Its flesh, clinging so close to the bone was ragged and leathery. Two pairs of extra arms erupted from its torso, its legs becoming so deformed and nubby that they were indistinguishable from its other appendages. Instead of feet, it had yet another pair of hands, forcing it to crawl along the ground like an ape.

It hungered for flesh, blood and magic. Uncontrolled demonic taint had reduced it to a cursed state where it endlessly hungered but could never be sated, not unlike the walking dead. At night it rose from its hiding places, and hunted for unsuspecting victims. It was a nocturnal predator, for it feared the light of the sun. It had fled to this backwater town where there were few devils, -though it didn't know or otherwise care about the more important devils situated here in the first place- and even fewer exorcists. The abandoned ruins of a church was the only evidence that there were any clergy here to begin with. It thought of this location to be safer, a fact that would bite it's ass in more ways than one.

The previous night, the devil had awoken to taste sweet, delicious mana floating through the air. The transformation that the young Hyoudou that day had created a long line of energy dotting the road to their home from the park, leading it towards them. It had observed a sleeping girl seeping mana slowly and consistently, like honey pouring out of a jar. It had never tasted anything like it, and its simple mind could only think that perhaps this time for sure its eternal need could be quenched.

Despite the lack of rational and sentient thought in most stray devils, something inside it had been convinced that other devils would be attracted to the mana simply bleeding off the girl. It had to hurry, but in its other attempts, it had retreated from the household when it became quite clear the girl wasn't going to fall asleep just yet. It, being a primal cesspool of everything bad about devilkind, lacked patience or especially tolerance for long waits,, and would break down in anxiety as the hours would go on. Tonight however, it would be ready.

Even as its instincts screamed harder for it to stop, and consider the possibility that what they have targeted would be the end of them, it persevered. Creatures that emitted large amounts of mana had to be using it for some reason, whether it'd be gathering it up for a ritual or to empower themselves,the monster didn't care. 'The risk was worth it,' or whatever equivalent term existed for such a being. It went past two sleeping humans, thinking them as nothing more than desserts.

Once, it had slammed open doors and windows, crashing into its prey and attempt to devour them whole. Discolored blotches of regenerated flesh testified why that would no longer be a reliable tactic, it barely coming out alive at numerous occasions. Magic users or magical beings were no mere weaklings, and if it had to do it this time around, it needed to do it quickly, quietly and efficiently. Carefully opening the door, it entered the room of its target. Like a shark tasting blood in the water, the devil grew less and less restrained, its many legs trembling in anticipation.

Its maw churned with poisonous saliva, a slow killer for sure. One drop landed on the girl it stood on top of, the colorless droplet eating away at her skin, a red blossom growing where it had landed. From there, a hint of satisfaction observed from it's behavior. The sleeping girl's fitful sleep worsened, her face scrunching up in discomfort. The paralytic properties of the liquid numbed a victim's nerves, unnoticeable in smaller quantities. The stray devil opened its jaw wide, two incisors slick with venom preparing to sink deeply into the girl.

A small fist lashed out from the once sleeping girl, grabbing onto one of the monster's many arms. A horrible snapping sound made itself clear, some blood lightly pouring from the joints. The poor sod looked into the would-be-victim's eyes, those lacking both mercy or compassion and accompanied by an expression of great annoyance. Raising another hand, a gilded rifle appeared, readily equipped on the girl who had prepared for an ambush already, though expecting one of the more mundane sort instead. The rifle itself was an antique, a musket from the 1500s called an arquebus, describing it so she didn't have to describe it to you in any further detail. The girl twisted her weapon just in time to jam it onto the monster's throat, as well as slapping its stupidly smug mug away from her. The girl was just about to pull the trigger, when she suddenly realized something in mild annoyance, stopping herself from simply blowing its head off.

The stray devil took advantage of the pause, whipping its other arms at the girl. All the while it was trying and failing to dislodge the tube currently stuck in its gullet. The girl dropped the devil's broken limb, reaching down to the right side of her bed and finding nothing. The girl sighs, but not before simply pointing another gun that appeared out of nowhere towards the abomination. She was smiling now, the smile of a devil. Gone was the appearance of fear or discomfort, an aura of killing intent oozing from her smirk. It was a miasma of bloodlust and hate so thick, it felt almost tangible.

"What the hell are you?" The girl asked, narrowing her eyes in disgust. She scratched her chin with a finger in deep thought, before intercepting another claw and breaking the arm it was attached to. The devil would have screeched in pain, but the rifle up its throat sorta limited the scope of its vocal cords, turning the otherwise eerie sound into a whimper. It swayed and fell forward onto the bed, as its attempts to remove the gun would cover it in its vile fluids. The girl's head leaned on one side in curiosity, as it would move slowly to interact with it.

The scene was very much like a curious child breaking apart the legs of an ant or just about any other insect. The girl toyed with the devil, not fighting seriously in the slightest. She seemed more interested in the weak regeneration the creature exhibited than its weakening attempts to kill her, which slowly began to wane as time would go by.

The stray devil's adrenaline fueled anger had been replaced by a feeling it hadn't felt in a long while; true fear. It feared of its prey's overwhelming power, the pain it had felt every day since its conception multiplying by the second just by being _near_ **_her_**. And especially, it began to fear of death. Too many of its limbs had been broken to escape, and all attempts to create an advantage had either failed or made the situation worse for it. The stray devil was an ambush predator, a creature that relied on surprise attacks, an occasional advantage and nothing else. The poison had been seemingly effective when she was sleeping, but now the venom vaporized the moment it hit her skin instead of the other way around.

The girl pressed her ear to the wall, listening intently. Upon turning back to the cowering creature, she opened the window and lifted it with little effort. Walking towards the devil who was now attempting to play dead with very little success, she tosses the paperweight outside. The sheer malevolence radiating from her had vanished, leaving her an ordinary girl once more. She followed after it, but not before taking her hat with her.

* * *

Servants and Demi-Servants did not require sleep. They could enjoy it, yes, but they could go on for weeks without resting and still feel exactly as they did the weeks before. Indeed, Oda Nobunaga was very much the same case. She didn't need to sleep at night at all, preferring to stay awake the majority of the time to watch over the body of her host instead, and the world around them.

The modern age was so exciting for her. In just a few hundred years after she had passed on, technology had advanced so much compared to the medieval stasis the world had been before the past few millenia. In just a short time beginning in the 1800s according to the Grail records, humanity has gone far and beyond what was thought to be their limits. Computers, motorized vehicles, how everything was made to be so commercialized and streamlined, the girl just wanted to know more and more. What few glimpses she saw was not enough for her, her curiousity burning was a feeling she hadn't felt since her youth. She wanted to see the Japan of today, to see what her actions had helped create.

Watching Issei's memories was how she spent her time, learning more about modern culture, life and so on. She had also read the various stories that Issei browsed through earlier, some issues of which were embedded fairly deeply into the younger's long term memory. The array of culture was so extreme, Nobunaga simply wanted to experience all of it. She wouldn't forget that someone had drawn the circle her host had stumbled into on purpose, and though this may not have necessarily been a part of their plan, she would make the most out of the situation herself.

Nobunaga had been browsing through Issei's memories when she heard something sneaking into her host's home. She cursed, having let her guard down this early in the morning, a mistake she vowed to never repeat. She heard the door downstairs slip open, the muffled sound of something crawl up the stairs, and finally the creak of a door as the intruder entered the bedroom.

She resisted an attempt to take control of Issei's body to protect her, at least for now, but she needed to wait for an opening. An odd liquid dropped onto the sleeping body's cheeks, and heard the subtle sound of a mouth widening, that of bones cracking and flesh stretching. She immediately took direct control, dragging Issei into the waking world with her motions.

To Nobunaga's surprise, it wasn't a person that attempted to ambush her, but a uh... Something. It used to be human at least, she could see the eyes, a mangled up face, a rotting um... Yeah, she's not going to dignify that sausage's existence with a response. She didn't let her surprise show, however, moving to snap one of the abomination's many limbs. Issei wanted to scream, but the girl moving her had just about every inch of her body under her control, the only sign of emotion being the tears struggling to come out of her eyes.

She wanted to tell her how sorry she was for taking over her entire body after so little time had passed, but there were matters to be dealt with and an ugly sonnuva to be mutilated. Silently saying an apology to the child she had sidelined, explaining that she didn't have it in her just yet to protect herself, she prepared to counter whatever else the intruder had to offer. The devil was on to her, attempting to chomp a little of her flesh off.

Materializing a rifle, she slammed it up the monster's throat. Even though she never possessed the ability in life, her movements were clean and perfect. She was ready to pull the trigger and end it all now, but a short moment of reflection made her sigh in resignation. A gunshot from her gun would make more problems than solve them, whether it be from the authorities or her host's own parents. It would awaken the entire neighborhood and bring the feds running to them, and she was not quite ready to experience whatever sort of legal system the modern age had. Or perhaps this world's mages, who may or may not be as unscrupulous as the ones in the world she had lived in before.

While Nobunaga's stats should have been reduced due to the lack of proper training from her host, they remained relatively stable. Issei was shockingly very good at producing mana, but he could only produce so much for her at any single time, so she gathered that whatever upkeep was left was taken care of by the ambient mana just floating around her. She could operate at her full parameters without worrying too much about Issei's well-being, a good thing since she couldn't simply shift into her astral state to reserve her energy and gain some. Her strength was good enough to snap a healthy grown man's arm like a dry twig, and a malnourished monster like this was so far below her weight level that it was almost pitiful.

Thinking about it for a moment, Nobunaga thought that in a world full of magic, there would be magical creatures. Maybe not as grotesque as this one, but something along those lines at least. Whatever the case may be, she'll have it figured out in the next few years. She reached down for her sword, finding nothing as she may have left in the comfortable hands of her host's parents. Sighing deeply, she blocked another attack and snapped a limb from this spider thing.

She reaches down to the other side, hoping that she at least put it somewhere close, and suddenly remembered that they left it downstairs, and it wasn't like she could just materialize _that_ either. Releasing another tired sigh, mostly in relation to her host, she materializes another gun and whipped it on its side. She could feel the traces of a smirk appearing on her face, though that would always happen whenever she fought in battle so it wasn't like much had changed.

"What the hell are you?" she asked the creature with disgust, looking at the blood and pus pouring lightly at its joints. Any glimmer of intelligence in its eyes had disappeared, so maddened was the monster. Nobunaga eyed the creature, pondering its purpose, its meaning in life, though lightly laughing off the last statement as if it were a slip of the tongue. What she witnessed before her was once-human, or at the very least was a human-resembling revenant that felt demonic in nature, and also a mindless predator, just for clarity. Unfortunately for the would-be threat, Nobunaga was simply the bigger fish in the pond here.

Ignoring Issei's shrieks on the inside, she broke another one of the flesch-spoider-abomination-thing's many limbs. Issei was a little young to be witnessing something as grotesque as this, she admitted. There wasn't much she could do in that regard, but the child was still a child. She noted her rapidly accelerating heartbeat, the sense of irrational terror overcoming her body that she would expressionlessly ignore, and the incessant twitching that her left eyelid was currently going through. Issei had far more control than she had thought of at first, though that would only be natural.

Crushing those feelings, Nobunaga caught another limb, leaping off the bed as the monster crashed into it. The beast was so thin and starved, barely a sound was made upon hitting the mattress. Only a slight creak on the cushions were heard, its attempts to retch the weapon still up its throat far more audible, though not by much.

As Nobunaga approached to end it, the creature shied away, attempting to scare away the bigger monster of the two. She raised an eyebrow at its attempts to play dead, and its futile attempts at peace. Looking at the ruler to the side of the room, she crouches and moves slowly towards it, poking with it on the almost-corpse, not unlike on a run over rabbit or mouse.

"It's fine now, Issei. I beat it up for you," she told her host, who was still scared shitless at the thought of an actual demon invading her home and almost eating her and her entire family. "It's not so scary anymore, Issei, see?" Nobunaga gestured to the paling body, still jabbing it. Issei didn't dignify that with a response, the fear numbed by her tenant's retarding boot of immaturity.

Pressing her ear to a wall, she checked to see if the parents were awoken by the commotion. They somehow hadn't despite the inhuman shrieks of the monster earlier, so she wondered what to do with the shivering creature on her bed. Looking at the window, she had an idea.

Hefting it open, Nobunaga let the humid air in, and stepped closer to grip the creature's neck and tossed it out nonchalantly. Quickly grabbing her cap off the dresser, she followed it out the window. One last despairing glance was given to the room with the monster's venom sprayed all over the room, wondering what the hell she should do to clean it up before Issei's parents would come and inspect it. A demi-servant was totally immune, but they wouldn't be so lucky.

Nobunaga landed next to it, ramming a spare rifle straight down on one of its hands like a railway spike. Red blood began spilling out of the appendage, confirming to her that it is, or at least was a normal something before, most likely a human being. The beast was an enigma to her, its appearance and body structure so alien to her. What the hell was it, and what did it have to gain from attacking her? Since the thing refused or otherwise lacked the ability to speak, she supposed she had to do things the old fashioned way. Cutting into a monster like this would have been so much easier if she had her blade with her, but it would have to do.

Nobunaga was no physician when it came to the human body, so she couldn't really conclude if the whatever had any relation to human beings beyond the obvious resemblance. She dematerialized the rifle keeping the abomination pinned to the ground, and began carrying it with her. Using her supernatural agility, she ran towards the park where everything had began in a place no one would really notice her and the problem. Dropping it to the ground rather carelessly, she kneeled down and began poking holes on the poor thing like a very depraved surgeon.

From what she could tell, whatever had attacked her was pretty much a person, or at least was. It had all the organs she figured human beings should have, although the skin was pretty leathery. Issei didn't have much to say about the scene unfolding before her, eyes still locked onto the impromptu live autopsy with more than a little morbid curiosity, and if it weren't for Nobunaga's iron grip hold on her body, she would've barfed the previous day's breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Nobunaga didn't think it was a normal demon, thinking it perhaps more of a half-demon if anything. It had the aura, pitiful it may be, but none of the overwhelming power normally associated with them. The creature's regeneration had been very useful to her when she accidentally shattered a delicate organ. A rifle supported by brute force and power alone wasn't the most efficient surgical equipment.

By the time the sun began to shine, the creature had already died, its regeneration incapable of keeping up with Nobunaga's macabre fascination with its anatomy. By dying, it not only escaped its eternal suffering and hunger, and its fear of Nobunaga, but its cadaver would also become a lure for all sorts of magical creatures and individuals. The public at large were well unaware of the existence of magic, which meant either a masquerade of sorts for the greater world of the supernatural, or that magic was a limited resource like her home dimension, forcing the occult to ration out their resources to avoid such a problem. Because of how much mana filled the air, to the point of overflowing every section of the world in fact, she doubted the latter as a viable option.

Whoever the local cleanup crew were supposed to be, they would be forced to deal with the rotting carcass and she'd have to wait for them to get there before she could safely return home. If it meant avoiding the possibility of a passerby to stumble on it by accident, there wasn't much else for her to do. Sitting on a tree trunk, she twiddles with her fingers, waiting patiently for them to arrive.

Thinking on it, she could always just go out for a short while. Waiting was boring, and her host didn't have any relevant clothing yet. Looking at the surrounding area, the cadaver was in a remote enough location that only people who cared anough about the supernatural would go here directly. Walking towards the 'head' of her victim; she kicks it for a bit, then walks away. "Clothes shopping it is..." She thinks back to the dirty and dangerous room. "At least after I'm done cleaning the mess up."

Nobunaga ran back as quickly as she could, making sure to avoid any person who was doing their early morning rounds. Once arriving, she jumped up the open window, landing smoothly. Closing her eyes instinctively to block the glaring light of the sun shining through, she backs away slightly, glad that the problem was over with, at least for now. Remarking something along the lines of having to clean everything up before her parents woke up, she was interrupted by a feminine "Clean what?" echoing from the other side of the room. Nobunaga froze for a moment, now feeling two familiar mana signatures just behind her, realizing that leaving the home for a good 30 or so minutes to play around with a bag of flesh was probably not a good idea when both parents were still inside their home, probably tired and maybe well aware of what had happened a while back. Even if they hadn't witnessed everything. Slowly moving her body to face back, she opened her eyes.

She opened her eyes to meet mother and father standing just beyond the door, the former pointing at the girl who seemingly leaped back into the bedroom out of nowhere and was currently looking back and forth at the evaporating acid that was slowly eroding the walls, and the latter who began poking at the poisonous material with her blade and palming his face, muttering something about "Of course my kid had to become a god forsaken magical girl..." Inevitably a few bits and pieces would've been left over from Nobunaga's ass whooping, if the bits of flesh left over on her bed were any indication. Calming down, the matriarch walks towards the bed and pokes a bit of flesh with rosary on hand, the cursed flesh immediately turning into dust, confirming her thoughts of a supernatural attack. Looking at the person who had just arrived, sweaty and with restrained tears, courtesy of Issei's shifting moods, she gives her child a questioning look, motioning her to answer.

**There actually used to be a scene after the last one, but I felt like adding another one would've messed with the pacing too much, so I'll just affix that mess to the next one. Yes, I did in fact just make Issei's parents aware of the supernatural as a whole. Better now than later, would probably give some incentive for them to be a little more wary. Playing Guilty Gear and getting hyped for the new one also made me envision this version of Issei's mother to sound like Jack-O for some reason. Yeah.**

**As for the tone for the rest of the story, I'm thinking of something between Guda 2 and 3. I'll figure it out.**

**I'll edit this thing a bit more over time, so just give it a while. Probably gonna come up with the side story after I'm done.**

**Some dude: make Nobu her maou avenger version so that people would mistake her as a gremory**

**that's probably gonna be a plot point/red herring for the unaware devils and exorcists. also makes for a good side story. thanks mang. It's gonna be a semi-canon thing, but you could cut off some branches if you wanted to make sense of it in the future.**

**This is also what happens when you make a short story when you're sleep deprived. Somehow I work best when I feel tired already, but everything just smells of crack then. (Some extra stuff too, maybe. Nothing too big.)**

Side Story-

Rumours abounded of a beautiful redheaded girl, seemingly the elder sister of the High School senior Rias Gremory who would sometimes appear in the Occult Research club. She was tall, and almost unapproachable by the local school populace, with an unmatched elegance that could only be made by such a mature woman. Although many had questioned why exactly a college aged student would be lounging about in a high school campus, there was little to no doubt that whoever the girl was, she was not someone to be trifled with. Her clothing was a bit queerer, apparently being a a skintight dominatrix outfit, or something similar to one, but confirmation was not available.

This, of course, came to the attention of ones called Motohama and Matsuda, a duo of voyeurs and delinquents infamously known as the perverted duo. Being the dedicated bunch of losers and nerds that they were, they wanted to know more about the mysterious waif, whether it would be her history with the club, her measurements, or even her personality. Any of their attempts to gather information went straight down the drain however, as either asking the people who knew of the members of the club didn't know enough, or the members themselves who simply refused to answer. When they tried asking a certain someone, the only member of the club they could reasonably call a "friend" or "acquiantance", however...

Hyoudou Issei's eyes widened in acknowledgment, his cheeks flushing, and suddenly turned back from them, breath hitching for a moment. Coughing into his fist, he responded, "T-That's um... I have no idea what you're t-talking about, I'm sorry but I have to go!"

With that said, Issei run away from them, almost tripping on a twig on the floor as the duo watched, their curiosity piqued and wanting to know _why_ exactly Issei felt the need to be so defensive. But with so little to work with, and no one wanting to answer for them, they didn't have much to work with. Sitting down, they look up to the sun, feeling hopeless.

Luckily for them, an excuse came to them very quickly in the form of an Aika Kiryuu, coming back to the duo after watching their conversation with the Prince, having previously talked to them about this very same subject. She reasoned that she had to deliver something to Asia that she couldn't send directly, and having never entered the clubroom herself, she needed another excuse to have a pair of surrogates do the dirty work for her. The plan would go that they'd go to their clubhouse first, deliver the parcel to Asia, and... something. They would work it out, but apparently Motohama would only need to take a singular photo of the woman to make out her measurements.

When they questioned Aika about her direct involvement in this 'project' of theirs, the girl looked at them with a menacing gleam of her glasses. Adjusting them slightly, she responded, "I want fewer threats to my (social life) as possible." The other two didn't know what she actually said, to be exact, but somehow it sounded like it was threatening their lives.

Arriving at the door to the clubroom, they knocked on the door. No response. They tried again, with no luck on the draw once more. Sighing, Aika took a few steps back, prepared herself, then ran into the door, slamming it wide open. When the dust settled, they gasped, taking in what they were seeing.

Standing before them was Issei Hyoudou, prince of the school... dressing up in a Kuoh Academy girl's uniform. Just beside him was a certain Irina Shidou, helping him put the rest of the outfit on. Tinges of red highlighted bits and pieces of Issei's long hair, his face suddenly looking quite a bit feminine, most likely make-up, and a hair clip accentuating the rest of his features. Suddenly, everything made sense now, in their opinion and skewed perspective of the situation that is.

The reality was that Issei Hyoudou was very much not a man (well, not 100% of the time) but a girl. Issei didn't really go out of herway to make himself look suspicious in the eyes of her classmates, but needs were urgent at the time and didn't have much to properly explain to them. It came with the risk of revealing her physical gender, minute as it was thanks to the Kippousai spell, but it was still a risk to be avoided. Ideally he should've expected them to try and figure it out the hard way, considering his experience with the subject.

Why exactly was he being dressed up, you may ask? Well, that's fairly simple, actually. When Irina Shidou found out the whole truth, and the entire truth behind Issei's current form, she was ecstatic learning that all of the things she loved about the boy she met so long ago was not wasted. Weird as it may be, Shidou somehow convinced Issei to play dress up for her in her various female and male forms. If there was anything Issei wanted to do, it was make the most out of every interaction she had with her.

With that in mind, Issei could only stand with a growing blush, thinking perhaps they should have taken the time to keep the doors locked a bit better. Dread formed in his stomach, thinking perhaps that this was it, rumors would spread, everyone would know he was a girl the entire time despite the magic tricks doing their best to avoid such a problem. Was this how it was going to end? A secret spreading because of a bunch of overzealous classmates? Sure they could hypnotize them, make them ignore everything they've learned today, but doing that sort of thing just felt _wrong._

"You..." Aika began. "You're a... a..." Aika then took a quick look at Gaspar sitting in a chair behind the two, who chuckled nervously. She put two and two together and thought of the only appropriate comparison. "A crossdresser!?" She said

"Eh?" Issei replied, confused. This wasn't a line of dialogue they were expecting. A girl? Sure, that was expected. Even as Oda Kippousai, she looked sufficiently girly enough to be considered a pretty boy, but outright crossdressing? Wow. That. That didn't even come across her mind.

"Yeah! And you're standing around in that girl's uniform like you own it, Hyoudou!" Aika replied. She took a mental note to drag the perverted duo back with her, their current postures possibly telling her that they are currently Blue Screening. "Are you the hot chick that everyone keeps calling a sister of Rias-senpai?"

"I..." Issei began, but was cut off immediately.

"Don't answer that, actually. You're tall enough normally, your hair's reddening and you look girly enough right now to qualify." Facing back with a huff, she moves her arms to pull the two brain dead perverts with her, them sliding across the floor.

The doors close, Issei and Shidou now alone for the most part. Issei asked, "What just happened...?" She took a little bit of her time to adjust the skirt on her waist that fell to the ground when she wasn't focused enough. Hearing Shidou cough for a bit, she faced to look at her.

"I think you made everyone think that you were a drag queen, Issei." She shifted her head to face Issei as well, a bead of sweat rolling down her face. "Hey, at least they don't know you really are a girl," Shidou said, worriedly.

"I hope so..." For the most part, they didn't. But when the next copy of the school paper came the next week, the mystery of the College Aged Dominatrix from the Occult Research club was solved. Written down, they identified Issei as the person behind the mask, a fact that made the fangirls scream even harder.

**I have absolutely no idea what I've just written. See kids, this is why you don't write stories when you're sleep deprived. Oh, and if there are any logical inconsistencies, and especially timeline or context problems here, just apply a broad strokes kind of thing here. It's meant to be semi-canon, not totally. I don't mind if you point them out, though. My biggest problem was figuring out if the doors to the club room opened inwards or outwards.**


	4. Chapter 4 - Confirmation

**Don't feel afraid to review, okay? I can't improve my writing and understand what the hell I'm doing wrong if you guys don't tell me. I still don't. Thank fuck absolutely nothing happens to Issei before he met Rias. If I decide against making chapter 5 be the last piece of prologue before episode 1 proper, by the way, I think I could make up some shit about Nobunaga (and Issei, really) going around the country incognito during her (read: Issei's) free time, learning about the current state of Japan, and becoming a very big nerd/otaku. Something about that fangirling Nobu had about the modern age in the previous chapter. If that won't pull through, it'll just become another set of side stories.**

**Also, look at my profile for irregular updates on the current state of my chapters, and of my equipment. That way you know if I'm stumped on something or not.**

**Again, really sappy writing. Hopefully won't be a thing in my story, and my writing in general.**

Nobunaga's host stood in silence, not having much to say as her face turned into a grimace. Blinking nervously, Nobunaga allowed Issei Hyoudou to speak through her and said, meekly, "Uh... Good morning, mother?" The girl didn't have much to say either, apparently. She began to tap her hands in anticipation, waiting for her mother's response. As if on queue, she also began whistling to herself, as if the stereotypical action would let her get away this time.

Miki Hyoudou, matriarch of the family, figured as much, and thanks to her prior knowledge of mahou shoujo and other sorts of geeky sort of stuff from her youth, patted the girl in the back, and said, "I think we can talk about this more during breakfast time. Don't forget to clean your room." Her internal justification was that whatever the hell she fought when they were asleep was a very spooky monster, that didn't last very long to their child's newfound powers, hence harboring very little actual threat when Issei was around to fight it. She didn't have much of a choice in that regard so she looked at her husband, whose otaku-ness was what attracted him to her in the first place. Husband and wife stared at each other for a few moments, the same general idea in both of their minds.

Her father sighed, palm on his head and realizing what sort of implications the threat to their lives was supposed to be. Even if there was no convoluted team of reincarnated magical girls teaming up together to save the world over and over again from a kingdom of jerks that their one and only child would lead, the fact that they saw her _dematerialize_ a gun of all things on her hand was enough to make those sort of conclusions. A very contemporary take on the magical soldier phenomenon, indeed, though soldier could be taken rather literally in this case. The father followed the mother's response after, sighing even deeper, saying "Just... do what your mother says, Issei. Your bedroom's not the best place to talk about this kind of stuff. It reeks."

With that said and done, they shut the door and the parents walked downstairs, a faint "We really should've asked a little bit more about what happened inside of that circle, you know," echoing through the staircase. Well aware of their mistake, the girl followed after to get the cleaning materials, hoping that the discussion for _this_ morning wouldn't be as cringe inducing as the one from the day before. Realizing that they didn't have much to hide her powers anymore, not like her parents didn't think about the possibility in the first place, Issei didn't even try to restrain herself from running down, her inner thoughts wondering how in the world Nobunaga got used to this kind of speed. Her mother looked at the child running down faster she could, thinking pretty much the same thing as Issei, though more focused on making sure she didn't trip and fall.

Issei was done in less than 30 minutes, a great feat considering how sticky the bodily fluids were. She had already been used to doing the chores, but her superhuman speed, aided by Nobunaga every now and then because Issei didn't have as much finesse or precision as her, made the chore much quicker, turning what was once an hourly occasion into basically a glorified exercise routine. Every inch of the room had been dusted, the flesh and acid vacuumed and damaged equipment taken away. Her mother looked at the squeaky clean room with satisfaction, then took note of the forlorn look on Issei's face.

"Some parts of your room needed to get replaced anyway, Issei," she remarked, giving Issei a curt smile. "There's no need to worry about that at least, but if you're still worried that we won't care or believe your concerns this time, then please trust us a little bit more." She sighs. "We should be past that already, so just remember to explain a little bit more about it this time, okay? You can keep some of your secrets, just give us the basics." She pecks a kiss on her cheek, then walks down, leaving Issei with her broom on her left hand as she faces the ground.

The girl didn't think that would be the case this time around, so learning that her traitorous thoughts were proven false once again made her tear up. Not out of sadness or grief, but satisfaction. Sitting down on the floor, she sighs, relieved.

Breakfast was a bit faster paced than the previous day. They've already went through the rounds by then, so besides needing to elaborate a bit more on her current state and especially her newfound superpowers that they so conveniently forgot to ask her about, there wasn't much else added to the conversation. Nobunaga warned about not letting them know everything they didn't need to know, especially of her presence within her mind, which suited Issei just fine. In any other situation, especially an actual holy grail war, Nobunaga would have been forced to make Issei abandon her old life for good to avoid having to kill her parents, whether as innocent bystanders or mind controlled slaves. Both of them were completely possible, and she knew the latter very personally.

"So you're telling us that you aren't quite a magical girl…" His father began. He was in the middle of polishing his glasses, and drank a cup of coffee listening to their child. Considering his teenage otaku lifestyle, not unlike what Issei would've had if he didn't meet Nobunaga, he was well aware of most of the tropes.

"But something close to it?" Her mother remarked, looking up every now and then from her old collection of manga. "Then you're just in the same category. Arguing about those semantics would be pointless, Issei." The mother shook her head. The latter term flew through Nobunaga and Issei's shared body, though they considered the context and answered anyway.

"I guess? Not everything about it is like the magical girl thing you're telling me about, though I get the comparison." Issei was wearing the military uniform on the dinner table to confirm some of her parents' suspicions. It was quickly washed, dried and ironed the day before, and Issei was asked to put it on using her, uh, "henshin". Which worked, somehow, and the clothes at first on the couch were now worn on her body. Unlike the first time it happened, nothing of importance was lost; the clothes she was wearing before the transformation were actually beneath the uniform this time around. It was a convenient change because she certainly didn't know what it would be like if she had to swap out all of her clothes just because they became carbon copies of her uniform.

Issei explained the basics of her powers, what she could do and other important parts that didn't really need elaboration. Any time Issei didn't know what to say, it either came down Nobunaga telling her what it was or taking over briefly to do it herself. If the changes weren't so mundane, the thought of a ghost giving her the powers might have actually come to mind. They were well aware of Naruto type scenarios, after all, even if Issei's father thought of Naruto as being pretty subpar for a Shonen. His words, not mine.

They asked her to do something else with her powers, and as if on instinct, the blade that failed to be around for Nobunaga during the attack flew onto Issei's hands. Issei didn't really do it of course, it was Nobunaga. The look on her parent's eyes when they realized her full extent was of brief understanding, and of melancholy. If what they learned from all of those days being huge nerds during their youth was true, then whatever could follow after would be far worse than whatever the hell their daughter fended off.

When Issei informed them of the monster's corpse she left behind at the park that she needed to get back to disposing, her mother told her to come closer. When Issei asked why, her mother gave the little girl a big old, pulling the younger girl closer to her chest all the while. In the middle of that, she then invited the girl's father as well. "I want you to take care of yourself, Issei. You and I don't know how big the world really is underneath all of that paint and varnish, and for all we know it could be more dangerous than anything you've faced so far. I'm warning you so you don't get too ahead of yourself unless you need to, alright?"

This was her way of accepting the strange destiny that fate had given their only child. After years of failing to produce a single live birth, they finally got one in the form of Issei Hyoudou, who would've been their light for the future. In all the years that led up to his eventual entrance to elementary school, they safeguarded him in every way, comforting him when he was down, and loving him and nurturing him. It's quite clear that such a life is impossible now, however, and time for the chick to leave the nest.

At least as far as physically defending him now, of course. They haven't a clue how to fight big scary monsters, much less handle and manage a gun. It's just up to her to defend herself, and that was the frustrating part of their compromise.

Pecking a kiss on Issei's kiss, she walked back to the dinner table and took their plates to the sink. Looking back a bit, she motioned the girl to go on ahead, and began washing the dishes. Her father was just about ready to go to work, and took his suitcase underneath the dinner table, putting on his suit coat and tie while doing so. Patting Issei's head lightly, he walks to the door and opens it, ready to leave the household. One last response was made, however, saying "Don't be surprised if you meet someone else like you in the future, kid." Issei definitely wouldn't. It would be too inconvenient otherwise, though the probability of a Holy Grail War taking place in the city if they do skyrockets if that ever happens. Gosh, she hoped they wouldn't.

Issei looked at both of her parents with a tear falling slowly from her cheek, which she quickly wiped off her face with her sleeve. Nodding once, she announced mostly to herself, "Ma, don't worry. I definitely will." Her response elicited a small smile on her mother's face, one that she exchanged with one of the cheeky kind. Quickly taking her hat from the shelf, she lets go for a little bit to let Nobunaga take over, taking the sword from the table, and got ready to go. Drinking a glass of water, she runs up the stairs to her host's bedroom, mentally apologizing to her host for not being careful enough to avoid making her parents learn about the situation.

'_I think it's okay, Nobunaga. They confiscated your sword after all, and there's not much I could do about that. They would've figured out something about it anyway.' _Nobunaga considered it, and figured that was pretty much the truth. If they were a tad bit more careful about waving big fancy swords around normal people, it was likely that the sword wouldn't have been taken the other day in the first place. Still, it wasn't like Issei knew how to hide it properly anyway, so she can't begrudge her for that at least. To the bucket list, it was; training could commence with her powers when they find more time.

Opening the window, she jumps out. She jumps up the neighbors' rooftops, doing her best to avoid places that that would bring her into the spotlight. The time it would take to get to the park on time would be normally less than a minute, but because Nobunaga needed to be a bit more cautious to make sure nobody saw her or her shadow, it took a bit more than 3. Jumping up and down the roofs was nothing special to Issei at first, but now that she could see everything around her thanks to the sunlight shining brightly, all she could do inside was watch the surroundings in awe. It felt much longer in general, and that was all thanks to the town's geography.

A little emotion made themselves known on Nobunaga's otherwise stoic face, a warmth in her heart she knew could only come from Issei. She smiled, happy that the cheery little boy from her visions was starting to come back piece by piece instead of being bottled up inside of her because of latent PTSD. Besides that, however, letting Issei scan the surrounding area was very much an advantage she needed to remember. In the future, it would be likely for her to fight more evil people and evil doers outside of the sanctuary of the Hyoudou household, so besides making sure that Issei learned how to fight on her own, she should also make sure to remember locales that would give them major advantages.

Landing on the clearing where she left the corpse earlier, Nobunaga knew something was already amiss. The corpse, full of holes and blood leaking out of every hole she poked on it, was already rotting. That part wasn't too surprising, and it also wasn't surprising that a large amount of flies was flying all over the place, breaking down the corpse slowly but surely. What was, however, happened to be the fact that she expected a putrid stench to be emanating from it. She could sense mana being spread throughout the spider, a barrier of sorts sealing it from the rest of the world. She also elected ignore the sensation of needing to barf from Issei's emotions once more, well aware of how disgusting the current situation was. The girl would get used to it, she just didn't want something like this to be her first try.

Clearly, whoever the hell and whatever the hell the Janitorial services were like in this universe had set a trap for her. Whether that meant leaving behind a trap for passersby who wished to feast on it, or some sort of ambush set for whoever murdered it, that is to say her, then surely they were aware of how the beast was killed in the first place. Suddenly sensing another mana signature, she could hear a whirling sound behind her. That must be them, she thought.

Shifting her body around, she quickly turned to face the origin of the sound. Her right hand was tightly gripping on the hilt of her blade, while an arquebus materialized on her left hand pointing at the whirlwind, ready to fight any outward hostiles. "Come out from where you're hiding, you..." she taunted.

A sigh could be heard from the site of origin, suddenly turning into a teenaged girl holding a magic wand lazily with her right hand, and holding waist with her left hand. Examining her form of dress, Nobunaga reeled slightly in realization of what the newcomer was wearing. "An actual magical girl?" Nobunaga and Issei asked incredulously. The crackpot theories that Issei's parents came up with during breakfast suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense.

"I am a magical girl, yes." She said proudly, eyes closed. The magical girl struck a cutesy pose before Nobunaga, the magic wand suddenly appearing a lot more sinister on her hands. She opened her eyes to smile at the girl before her, then dropping slightly after realizing that the girl before her was not only much younger than her, and apparently a lot less supernaturally inclined. Looking down the barrel made her gasp, sensing the anti-mystery characteristics of the weapon. It oozed malice and danger to the girl, and promised an actual threat to her.

She looked at the younger girl's face, apprehension on her features, then decided to make the first move. Coughing on her left hand, the girl asked her to put her arms down. "Now now, there's no need to be violent. If you would, could you please put your weapons down and I'll do the same? I only want to know the story behind the rotting carcass you left behind this morning, okay?" Making the first move, the older girl put her wand on her pocket and motioned the younger girl to do the same.

Seeing no reason to be hostile with quite possibly the very first normal encounter with the local supernatural, Nonunaga nodded. She dematerialized her gun, and very slowly put her right hand away from the hilt, the girl before her following her hand to watch for any sudden movements. The magical girl smiled at this, but only tilted her head upon seeing the other girl simply banishing her weaponry. Although magical prodigies were dime a dozen, she didn't think it was that easy to make and break weaponry, right? Something inside of her told her that some mercenary blacksmith in the middle east would be sneezing violently right now, but she wasn't sure why.

"Ahem. Thank you very much for that. Now, I would normally ask you to join my peerage and all that, but I don't think you're the kind of person who would enjoy working under someone. Especially knowing that you're probably a newbie to this supernatural thing...?" She took a quick glance at Nobunaga who could only nod slowly. "Right, I see. Well, everyone has to start somewhere. Now, could you please tell me," she pointed at the corpse and the ooze burning the environment around it. "What the hell happened here?" Nobunaga raised her hand to pause her line of thought. "Yes?"

"Could you at least tell me who you are first? I'd trust you better if I had a name to point you out in a crowd." Nobunaga asked as politely as she possibly could in this situation. She was a bit rattled by the girl's introduction, after all. The magical girl smiled brightly at this, and she lowered her head.

"Right, of course, of course. My name is Serafall Leviathan, Ultimate Female Devil, and the current Leviathan!" The girl had a peace peace pose on, smiling mischievously. Right as she did, however, she put her index finger to her chin after realizing something. "Ah, a Leviathan is one of the titles a Satan could Devil could have. I'm basically a big deal." After a little bit, she cooled down and went into a neutral pose. With a hand open and stretched to face Nobunaga and Issei, inviting her to a handshake. Then, she asked the younger girl, "What's your name?"

Looking down at the open palm, Nobunaga smiled, knowing that whatever power lurked underneath this girl she just met was a great ally to be had. Her right hand landed on top of the Serafall's palm, gripping it lightly and shaking it. Issei knew just as much, and felt like whatever was happening right now would be just like those awesome scenes in anime where the main characters make an alliance with another strong team. Nobunaga told Issei that she could try her hand on handling the negotiations this time around.

"My name is Issei Hyoudou, Miss Leviathan." Issei responded, smiling courteously. "It's really nice to meet you." She curtsied a little bit, courtesy of Nobu wanting a better first impression.

* * *

"Ah, I see... so the stray devil over there ambushed you on your own bed... Then you killed it and dumped it in the middle of nowhere so no one would see a big, scraggly manspider... Hmm." Serafall noted, looking at the creature on the other side of the glade. She came over after realizing that something had happened over the last few days, the mana from Issei's transformation being one such beacon for the supernatural world, and the dead spider demon an obvious victim of her anger. It didn't suit her appearance in Serafall's opinion, the younger girl only having a day or two to get used to her new powers herself. That she was very obviously another magical girl, except one that actually was a magical girl in concept if not in appearance, transformations included, was mildly irritating to her who could only be a magical girl in appearance. Not much she could do, she supposed.

"Well, to be exact I killed it after putting it here, but yeah that sounds about right," Nobunaga replied, responding for Issei. The two of them went over what had happened over the last few days, whether it would be the magic circle near the fountain that had given her (Issei) her powers in the first place, and the events that unfolded, what led to the altercation during dawn, and many others. Nobunaga gave her the sanitized version of the events that unfolded, having already given Issei's parents the bones of her capabilities and not wanting someone who could become an enemy in the future to know every little detail. Their conversation especially made her sure to avoid any particularly obvious hints regarding her presence within Issei's body, something that she made sure Issei did with her parents.

"Wow... and that all happened in your third day with these powers? You really are a magical girl, Issei, even if your methods are a bit more mundane than most." Serafall replied, comparing the younger girl's circumstances with the magical girls she watched in her anime collection. "Although, I do have to admit that having to go through all of that could be more than a little painful for most people, especially kids like you. There was a real risk for both you and your parents' lives, you know. You're a real clever kid to go through all of that." Serafall shook her head to emphasize her point.

"Ah, no, no. There's need for you to do that, Miss Leviathan. I just did what I had to. Really." Nobunaga waved her hands to dissuade Serafall from feeling too down on herself, despite knowing very well that she still felt scared shitless of the creepy crawly from the early morning that was very much dead by now. Thinking on it clearly, she still didn't know what the thing was in the first place, having referred to it as an it or beast or monster for the entire discussion, and Miss Serafall didn't seem to mind or care much about her terminology to begin with, so she thought to ask what it was in the first place. "By the way, Miss Serafall, what _is_ that thing, anyway? I know it's a demon of some kind but what is it exactly?"

Serafall thought it over a bit, then took a stick on the ground next to her and began poking on the dead devil, which had already began deteriorating under the sweltering heat, ripping open another rotting hole that Nobunaga was sure to be kept together better than the rest of the base. Issei wanted to vomit at the sight, but the action didn't faze Nobunaga much at all, leaving only a faint sense of nausea, for now.

"Like I said before, these monsters are stray devils. They were human beings who were converted into devils using evil pieces, betrayed or abandoned their masters and fell into greater depravity." Taking a piece of the corpse, she continued. "The heavy influx of demonic and dark energies corrupts a traitor devil's body into something totally inhuman, and slowly morphs them into abominations like these. Although, I'm pretty sure most of them would have some semblance of their former human form, like their face or torso, but none of that's readily apparent with stuff like this." She chuckles momentarily. "It's an interesting thing, you know. Our researchers have looked into everything relevant that would explain why or how people could just turn into these beings when they lose control of their powers. Which is why I'm especially surprised to see that you have... Eh? Issei-kun?" She blinks.

She was interrupted by her musings by the sounds of choking and something squishy hitting the floor, and looked back at where the other girl would have been. Her eyes widen, and suddenly she remembered that the girl, while seemingly more mature and reserved than any other child of their grade level, was still a child and would not be mentally prepared to see a rotting corpse being ripped apart, pus flying all over the place and with maggots chewing on the flesh. She rushes into action, practically flying over to where Issei was currently barfing the rest of her morning meal. "Ah, I'm so sorry Issei, I forgot you were still a kid a-and I-"

"No... I know... bwarrgh... what you mean. *gulp* It was my fault... being so squeemeeesh—-" Issei's eyes crossed, her mouth wide open while still vomiting the rest of her morning meal, and bits of her dinner. Nobunaga wouldn't have let such an act faze her normally, but the biological needs of her host's body was higher than her capacity to simply ignore what she was seeing.

Letting the younger girl clean herself up, she took a water bottle from the inside of her bag and gave it to Issei who appreciated the effort. A moment passed afterward, and Serafall begins to think that maybe she could've cleaned the mess up on her own while waiting for Issei to arrive earlier. She might not be as good as a tracker as she could be, but she'd have remembered where she'd put a cadaver, right? Calming down a bit, Nobunaga continued, making a gesture to catch Serafall's attention.

"That's... Thank you for the information, Serafall, I really needed that. That should give me just about all I need for a basic crash course, right?" Nobunaga finally said, as she waits for Serafall to make her own response.

"Ah, yes. Just about I think, at least for angels and demons. I don't normally give impromptu lessons to just any random newbie, so you should feel privileged, Issei-san! I don't know why your parents named you such a manly name for a girl, but that part doesn't matter!" The last sentence gave Serafall a brief moment of pause while looking at Issei's face, noting the brief flash of pain going through her face, and wondered what that meant. She elected to ignore it for now, as whatever might happen, it could potentially cause strife between her and her new friend. "In any case, I think you have a lot of potential, kid, so I wish you luck! Are you sure you don't want to join my peerage?" Well, she did ask politely, and her hand was facing her in the same angle as earlier, but...

"I'm sorry, Serafall, but I can't. You know how different I am now to my parents right?" She sighs. "I'm practically a different person from their old daughter (son), and I don't want to cause an even deeper divide between us." With a forlorn look, she takes her hat off to her chest and clutches it tightly. "Turning into this most of the time is hard enough on its own, but at least I'm still human. This, might turn me into a different person again- I think it's practically the only thing keeping me related to them, okay?" Issei said this, by the way. Nobunaga pretty much knew what Issei was feeling, and agreed with her. So she told her the right words to minimize the possibility of offending the other girl, something she didn't really need to worry about at that point.

Serafall considered what Issei was telling her, and understood exactly what the other girl was saying. She took a moment to reflect, to put herself in Issei's shoes, and suddenly it all made sense. She almost lost her life and her parents with her confrontation earlier, and who said she could just get used to such a transition? If Sona simply wasn't her little sister anymore after taking the name Leviathan, she wouldn't have taken the damn position in the first place.

Seeing Issei's depressed emotional state was starting to pull her heart strings enough on their own, so she walked closer to the other girl and gave the girl a hug. Issei was controlling the body at this point, moved by Nobunaga's words spoken through her enough to start shaking herself. "I'm sorry for not considering your own emotional state, Issei. I'm really sorry for that. Let big sister give you the chance to let your emotions out." She let herself get closer to the slightly older girl, and embraced her. Tears didn't fall this time, she had enough of those this week.

Serafall was content to let this go on forever, but suddenly she remembered what she was supposed to be doing that day. Tapping the younger girl on the back, who acknowledged her interaction, she gave her excuse. "I'm sorry Issei, but I really need to go now. I'll be discarding the body as cleanly as possible, so if you'll excuse me." She released the hug, Issei's embrace being surprisingly light. Her face was warm, satisfied. She wasn't as scared anymore.

Quickly burning the corpse to ashes, she cleaned up the rest of the ashy mess, putting them in places not all too obvious to the rest of the world. Stray devil cleanup was pretty easy all things considered. Being done with all that, she waved goodbye to Issei.

"Goodbye Issei! Till next we meet!" Serafall said, her face full of mirth. Issei followed after, her hand waving at Serafall. "If you ever meet my little sister, make sure to mention me, okay? I won't be here all the time, but I think I could come by every now and then!"

"I will!" Issei responded, certain that she'd finish that promise someday. Serafall smiled, and she went off, flares flashing behind her as she disappeared. Nobunaga dropped her hand, looked at where the corpse was earlier, and began running back home. She paused, let Issei take control, and slowly went through the door.

When Issei brought up the issue of clothes, and her identification, she was not expecting much of a response from either one of her parents, but they certainly had something in mind. It wasn't like Issei was particularly identifiable, having pretty average grades, and barely socializing outside of her friend Shidou, who had left the country by now. It was also a good thing that her school didn't really have ID cards yet, being that it was a pretty old fashioned elementary school.

When they finished lunch, they were ready to go. Her mother made sure for Issei to dress up in something okay and not at all identifiable. The evening when they went to the park would still be fresh in the minds of the locals, and someone would probably spread rumours about them if she dressed in Nobunaga's usual attire. Gossip goes in chains after all, and it wouldn't take long for the knowledge that the eccentric young girl they saw in the park was walking around still, and in a shopping center at that. That was attention they didn't want whatsoever.

She dressed up, ready to go. They walked into the car, and as she waited for them to arrive at the department store, Issei asked Nobunaga. "Did you come up with that speech yourself?" Nobunaga knew why Issei was asking her this, the heartfelt conversation they had with Serafall was a genuine thing, and Issei did her best to reflect her feelings but couldn't. Taking a moment to consider, Nobunaga replied. "To be honest? I took most of the idea from you. You did most of the job, to be honest. I just brought those feelings to the surface."

With that said and done, they continued onwards. Her father noticed her seemingly talking to herself, and asked if there was anything wrong. Issei shook her head as a negative, and waved her father away to focus on driving. The lesser he knew, the better.

The actual shopping trip didn't take very long at all. Although Issei's parents were regulars as far as she could tell, the shopkeepers and managers of the various establishments they went to didn't seem to care or know much about the little boy (girl...?) that was walking side by side with them. The simple reason why was because Issei didn't shop on his own until then. Anytime they did, the people manning the stands didn't connect the dots that the little kid was theirs because Issei went there on his own or with Shidou. As far as they could tell, Issei's as she was was indeed the child of Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou. It was a correct statement either way, but the distinguishing factor here was how little she actually looked like her parents now.

The shopping list was filled with everything they needed. There were new groceries, a tray of eggs, a few pounds of beef and pork and non-perishable items. The mother was ready to prepare something special for dinner, it seemed. Issei's new sets of clothes went both sides of the gender spectrum, and although she didn't like the idea of her wearing skirts and girly tank tops, there wasn't much of a choice there, something that Nobunaga agreed. In any case, she wouldn't be wearing them unless she needed to go incognito. The masculine ones, actually fitting properly for once, should suffice for everyday usage. A few girls at her school wore them all the time anyway.

She took a moment to notice something that was on top of the supplies they bought that day. It was an innocent looking box, filled to the brim with stuff she didn't know how to describe; it looked rigid, made of cotton or something like that, with a piece of string attached to the other end. She saw her mother have a box full of these in her parents' room, and something inside her told her that she'd probably using it for whatever ailment her mother gets every now and then, if the loud screaming from her parents' room was any indication. She would ask Nobunaga, but her mental image of the demon king somehow created one showing a sheepish looking smile.

Gathering up some courage to finally ask her what they were, she finally asked her mother who was now looking at her with an unreadable face. "Mama... What are these for exactly?" Issei gestured to the box of tampons (a term she didn't actually know yet), smiling weakly.

Her mother smiled with little emotion on her face, considering her words very carefully. "I'll tell you when you're a little older, Issei. They're called tampons, by the way." Having avoided the land mine, she faced the windshield of the car once more as Issei mulled over her thoughts on the matter. Issei's mother mostly bought the box for herself, really, but wasn't it a good idea to at least prepare herself for the inevitable future of her newly christened daughter? That's why she bought a few extra boxes this time around, and maybe a few other packs of other feminine hygiene equipment that I refuse to name. Besides shampoo, soaps and the like of course.

It was close to dusk when they arrived home, the clock ticking just a little past 4:30 PM. The family made sure to identify which stuff were theirs, put the food in the fridge that they didn't need just yet, and dividing the clothes by order of their owner for the washer. At this point Issei sprung back to her room, writing down a schedule of training and work out exercises they could do for the foreseeable future. This was done with Nobunaga's help who pretty much had first dibs considering whose body Issei's was modeled on. A few moments had passed, and on Nobunaga's part she wrote down most of it.

It was already decided at that point that normal exercise wouldn't do much for her, at least outside of making it seem like Issei really was well built and powerful underneath all of those clothing. The typical motions, a few suggestions from Nobunaga and now she felt more refreshed than ever. They were both ready to finish the day at that point, eating dinner and fixing Issei's bags to make sure all of the things she needed was prepared for school already. School would be the turning point, and she would make sure that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Thank goodness it was only the beginning of the semester.

Taking a close look at her bags, she noticed something next to it. On the shelf it was leaning on, Nobunaga's sword, her sword as well now that she thought about it, rested on top of it. Issei was certain that her parents put it there after realizing the existential threat that could come back at any moment, trusting her to protect them in much the same way they did to her for so long. Her heart warmed, butterflies on her stomach as she gripped it, a sense of familiarity and comfort coming from the action.

Issei thought of something for a moment, taking the blade and putting it on the other side of the room. She asked Nobunaga, "Is there a way to get the sword to float on my hand like you did a few days' back? And that time you did this morning to prove a point?" It was certainly a start to get Issei get used to Nobunaga's other powers at least, even if this was the most basic thing in her arsenal.

Nobunaga replied immediately, using her mouth no less. "Oh, that old thing? You should start 'feeling' the sword from a distance. Let it know you want her; just watch me!" She suddenly felt her hand feel fuzzy once more, and then bam.

In a snap, the hilt flew directly to her hands, a wide grin on her face, still controlled directly by Nobunaga. "See? Easy!" Very quickly she set the katana back to its original resting position, and as she slowly allowed Issei control once more, she told her follow the motions. "You try it!"

_'Just like that!?_' Issei thought in an exasperated tone. She barely felt anything, she didn't know the motions and she simply didn't know what to do. Whatever magnetic feeling that awesome gesture that Nobunaga used wasn't simply replicated since she didn't know what kind of magic trick it was in the first place. But then, she did feel something like another force flowing around her, and they did feel like what Nobunaga just did with her hands... And if anything, they wide grin on her eyes was still locked into place, having forgotten that it was like that in the first place, as if Nobunaga was waiting patiently for her to do her own take on the technique.

She breathed and exhaled, her eyes shut and mouth in a thoughtful frown. If most of the things that Nobunaga were already learned, just locked underneath years of skill and other miscellaneous stuff, then the best way to do that was do the same thing she did and hope that her instincts didn't fail her. Breathing again, she considered another thing; that the energy she felt around her palm was just mana, magic pooling around her to do what she wants. She didn't know how to describe it, but somehow she could _feel_ the air around her, ready to do her bidding.

She let her intentions be heard, and yet here there was no need to say the incantations. Opening her palm, she felt it come toward her, and closed it immediately. She opened her eyes and looked at it, her eyes widening as she saw her fist wrapped around the hilt, the blade pointing at the window.

"It worked... It worked!" Issei jumped up and down in joy, her first step in understanding the nature of her powers complete. It wasn't a particularly high step, mind you, but beggars can't be choosers. You had to start somewhere, and Nobunaga could only agree. She smiled, looking at the reflection in the blade, and felt no fear at the reflection. She didn't have to anymore.

'_Hey kid, good job! That was better than I expected, heck, I thought the blade would be poking out on you instead!' _Nobunaga said in their shared inner mind, looking at the blade herself. To Issei, it was almost like seeing her reflection talk back to her, which was disconcerting but ultimately nothing problematic. Nobunaga's nonchalant thoughts on her possible dismemberment has scared her more than a little bit, though. '_Next time we'll try even harder, okay? Something else for you to do so that you can do most of this stuff on your own.' _Issei nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly.

'_I'm thinking you could do something with the guns instead, materializing at least one of them and mastering the art of using them should give you a basic idea of how I fight normally.' _Nobunaga replied, though before she could continue the two were interrupted by Issei's mother peeking through the door, looking at the blade she was holding on her hand. She then shifted her attention to Issei herself, an eyebrow raised at the action she was doing at the moment.

"Is everything alright, honey?" The mother asked to her. Her mother pointed at the sword she was staring at earlier, the very same one her mother and father agreed to give back to her just that morning. Issei quickly moved to set it where it was before, hand still on the hilt, and replied, "No, not quite ma."

"Good. The food's almost ready, so get ready for supper alright? And for school, your bags still need to be fixed up." She walked down a little bit, still looking at the open door.

Issei looked at her reflection once more, waiting for a response. Nobunaga replied, '_I'm thinking you could do something like that in the future instead of now. Go eat dinner, because you, and by extension me, are hungry right now.' _The mental image gestured for every listed phrase, and Issei's stomach growled. The girl took a moment to process the response, as both of them laugh it off.

The girl nods and had the blade set down on the desk, and followed after her mother. "What's for dinner anyway?" She asked her mother, who smiled.

"It's a slow roasted pork belly with gravy on the side. You'll see it later, just another 15 minutes before it's done in the oven, okay...?" That said and done, the two walked down the stairs, mother and daughter hand in hand to the dinner table.

The rest of the night went smoothly. They had a great time eating together as a family for once, the only sign of dissent being Issei's occasional frustrated thought about her classes the next morning. There wasn't much to be done as it is, so Issei let it be for the night. She slept easily this time around, any worried feelings swept away by the warm embrace of her blanket.

**Issei's dad jinxed Issei, that's why Serafall met up with Issei this chapter. I also just wanted to use her for some reason. As for the reason why she was in Kuoh, she just wanted to pay a visit her little sis, I guess, then felt the magic around the park and the signature that felt similar in two positions, then followed it to the rotting corpse which was also emanating a mana signature. I guess. Fuck if I know. (I couldn't actually find a good way to fix her interactions with Issei, so just think of it as a version of her without Kayfabe.)**

**Yes. They did in fact have a heartfelt discussion while facing a rotting corpse. Weirder things have happened. I'm not sure what they actually do with stray devil carcasses when they're dead, since I'm pretty sure that not cleaning up where they died would probably get some muggle attention.**

**Yeah, there're a few contrived coincidences here and there to ensure that Issei had a smooth adolescent life. Now, consider that his constant voyeurism was what made him notorious in the first place, then suddenly the backstory I fabricated for him made a bit more sense. If there are any discrepancies, just say that Zelretch or a BROB did it. They can overlap, yes; shittily written Zelretches get used often enough in Nasuverse crossovers and Sis after all. It's pretty dumb of a concept since he's supposed to act like Jotaro, not DIO or some jackass version of Joseph.**

**Either way, here's the short story.**

Side story-

It wasn't Issei's idea to use Nobunaga's (more) adult form to enter establishments very obviously meant for actual adults as a disguise, but it certainly wouldn't be the last time she'd try. It was Nobu's fault, really, her insistence on allowing her host to taste 'victory' on her own terms, the bitter taste of the cup of alcohol she now held on her arms. Even considering that the bar she was in technically only served to people with an actual ID, which she definitely didn't have on hand because of the obvious risk of flashing the wrong face to the wrong person, she didn't have to. It took only a little convincing to allow their club room advisor to forge one, his concerned face turning into one of understanding, taking very little time to create one for her by the next week.

It looked and felt foolproof, finally finalizing her alias while being Nobunaga's alternate form. Such a boon would have been convenient early on, a few years back and especially when she first transformed into Nobunaga. She wouldn't have needed to pretend to be something she wasn't anymore, the very real possibility of a world where she didn't need to go through the extremely elaborate loopholes to prevent every world government from hacking and cutting her into little bits to understand how she worked. Was that a callous perspective on the reality she faced? Maybe, but over the years she learned the harsh realities of life, that sometimes you have to cut off a little bit of yourself to make things right again. Sighing once more, she supposed Nobunaga was right in a way. She wasn't supposed to be moping around here, she was supposed to be celebrating! Reflecting on her life wasn't bad, it was the mood she was in.

Looking at her now empty glass, she was now very much used to the bitterness of the drink. These were technically the very first glasses of alcohol she had in her life, but years of exercise, training and Nobunaga's innate resistance to disease and other such stuff made her practically immune to the intoxicating effects of alcohol. It was only inevitable that nothing would happen to her, and leaning on the bar counter she mused on and on about those sort of things. She wasn't really sure anymore, but she felt like relaxing here, now, and just looking every now and then at the game on the flat screen was enough for her to smile in content.

Her current train of thought was disturbed for a brief moment. She glanced her head to the side, seeing her clubroom advisor on the other side of the bar/restaurant keeping an eye on her and winking, to which she smiled back. But at the moment, that wasn't her current concern, something fell, and suddenly she felt like a pair of piercing eyes were poking through her back. Although, to be more exact it felt like it was scanning through her back... '_Scanning, huh? Who could possibly..._'

Craning her head to her left side, she saw someone, someone she absolutely didn't expect to see at this establishment, at this time, and especially not working here of all places. Standing behind the bar counter in a long sleeved polo and suit coat was her current bartender, wearing a pair of glasses with a face that suddenly hid all emotion behind a sheen of light and blank face, and was currently wiping an empty wine glass. And also watching her every move, but you already knew that.

She stared back, beads falling down her face, an awkward smile on her face as she looked straight ahead at her fellow classmate, forgetting clearly that Motohama worked in this particular bar every other day to buy his otaku equipment and cheap porn. And apparently he was really good at it, if his cocktail mixing was any indication. Gulping a little bit, and hoping that the fool didn't recognize her in this get up considering their previous interaction, she asked politely. "Um... Can I help you?"

The boy paused for a moment, staring back at the pretty lady who finally responded. She was a very beautiful girl, in Motohama's honest opinion, a bit slender, with crimson red locks and gentle features that accentuated every part of her body in just this fancy elegant way. Motohama wasn't sure about his calculations this time around, not this late at night, but he was fairly certain that the lady was a definitive C cup, her thighs just thick and juicy enough to compress at just the right amount of inches. She was a bit slender, yes, but that in his opinion was just fine to some women, their beauty going all the way in some other areas anyway. Taking a brief moment to collect himself, Motohama responded. "Ah, nay, ma'am. My apologies, but I merely caught myself enchanted by your ethereal beauty. Again, my deepest apologies." The boy said all of this while waving his arms in apology. Motohama practiced such a response for the last few weeks after learning the merits of an educated and higher class woman to woo, a certain 205995 coming to mind. The English translated version he found in a pirate porn sit at least helped him in his own English classes, but somehow it irritated his teachers and professors more than entertain them. He would make it work one of those days, somehow.

Nobunaga was unimpressed, so she advised Issei to simply ignore him, to which she obliged. With that in mind, she continued staring at her empty glass, content to do so for the rest of the night. Sighing in defeat, Motohama returned to doing his job. Taking one closer look at the girl he attempted to hit on, he noticed something oddly familiar about her. Something about her... He froze.

He thinks back to the week before, his flawless attempt in surveying the true identity of the Occult Research club beauty ending in failure or otherwise making out the prince of the school to be a wholesome crossdresser of sorts. Either of the proposals, real or crossdresser, made some sense but if the latter were true then... "Oh no." _'She looked so familiar to him, the red hair, the gruff exterior... Nah, it can't be. If anything But even then, he may as well test his luck.'_

Walking over to where to the girl was moping around, he called for her attention. Coughing into his fist, he began slowly. "Excuse me miss, but do you know someone named Issei Hyoudou?" A response, yes! Her eyes twinkled for a little bit, a brief twitch on her face. If he could use this connection of his to at least get the girl's number, then he would get someone to hang out with him for once. Looking at him once more, she nervously replied, "I don't... think so?"

Darn. But even so, he took a closer look at her features, a goofy and awkward smile, a sharp look on her face, and somehow looking just like a female version of his close friend...? "Wait... No. Nonono...! It can't be, it was just like that day the week before. No. No. No!" The boy screamed in great agony.

With that spiel over with, Motohama keeled over, falling face first on the floor with foam forming on his mouth. Issei looked at all of this with her eyes wide, not sure what to do with a panic attack of this level happening almost immediately after the previous one. "I uh... didn't do anything. He fell over on his own!" She rapidly said to the people staring at her, making a suitable excuse out of nowhere. The spectators watched her for a few moments, at which point they just shrugged and moved on with their lives. Sighing, she motioned to her advisor to do something, anything, who gave her a noncommittal gesture, something that didn't alleviate her worries at all.

Sighing once more, she ordered another glass, while her previous bartender was transported to an ambulance parked just outside. She didn't necessarily intend for something like this to happen, but what kind of dick would go out of their way to do that, really? He made the conclusions, it wasn't like she intended for the smartass to remember everything like that! Chugging another glass down, she demanded another one, a light blush on her face telling everyone what they needed to know. Her new bartender, apparently one of the waiters, gives Issei a concerned look, but with how the lady intimidated the poor bastard to unconsciousness, he may as well oblige.

The rest of the evening was calm and serene. The only indication of strife was the sound of a certain classy lady chucking her evening meal on a trash can.

**Give the next chapter another 2-3 weeks. I still have classes after all. The thing after that one will roughly be the first episode of the anime, I think? Roughly like that, chronology wise.**

**8/25/18. I forgot that Kuoh was an all girls school before Issei enrolled, and I had plans for Issei enrolling earlier than in canon, so now my dilemma is figuring out how to explain why the hell Issei would want to pretend that they're still a guy when they could do some favors for Serafall and the Gremories in exchange for an alliance, or something. I'm pretty sure that they didn't specify a timeline for when exactly it turned into a unisex institution so I could still go on ahead with the original idea, but Issei could still have asked Serafall nicely. In any case, I'll be fixing a few things in this chapter. Nobu isn't going to risk a deal with the devil just yet, by the way. I forgot to address that here, but just assume they talked about that AND the peerage thing.**


	5. Chapter EXTRA - Side Story Collection

**This ain't related to the actual story, sorry about that. If you were expecting a chapter with substance, then just ignore this, I guess.**

**This is basically a buncha stories related to the concept of Servants physically manifesting in their hosts. I'm making these to both artificially increase the word count in this story (yes, I'm that kind of person) but also to get my creative juices flowing. Once chapter 5 gets released roughly next month, you can just skip these, or use them as inspiration for your own stories. I'm open to either, but I'll probably write sequels to these scenarios on the side anyway lol. In any case, on with the show.**

**Only tangentially related, but I didn't want to make another story for something like this.**

**(08-27-2019) Writing this here because you'll notice it better, um. I'm reading the light novel now. 25 volumes is daunting, but 10 volumes should be doable for the first few main story chapters, I guess. Gonna take me forever, especially with all the side stories I'll need to do as well, but oh well. It might affect when i'll publish the next chapter, but it's been less than a week, anyway, so there shouldn't be too many problems.**

**Still got school to consider, and a lot of potential power outages, so. Uh. Yeah.**

**Side Story 1 - **Maiden of Orleans

It happened so quickly that Issei couldn't actually believe it was happening right now. One moment, he was in a romantic date with his beautiful girlfriend Yuuma-chan who he just met a few days ago, and next he was facing the barrel of the gun, her girlfriend turning out to be some kind of biblical fallen angel who was out to assassinate him. He'd be honest with himself, if this was any other context _and_ she wasn't trying to kill him, he'd actually think that this kind of scenario was actually kind of hot. Her luscious curves, her bountiful breasts constricted ever so slightly by her tight not-really-a-bra, and an amazing combination of tight latex tights and gloves creating such an image of a dangerous beauty. How such an innocent girl belied such a dangerous femme fatale underneath all of that clothing was to him, a miracle. It was something that only happened in anime, and yet, here he was, witnessing it in action.

As it stands though, there wasn't much he could do. This was it. He was going to die, here and now, assassinated by the woman he trusted just a few minutes ago. He shouted to her, wanting to know why she was doing this. But all he got was a cold glare, a face of irritation as if saying to him that everything that was happening right now was decided by her own whims. He tried and tried again, asking her if their time spent together was worth it, that there was any meaning to it all, and all that he got out of it? A laugh. She was mocking her. Nothing could have broken his bleeding heart even more, and as he watched a floating spear aim for his torso, ending the suffering now and then, he only saw the faces of those he had lost the trust of.

His parents, his few friends outside of the inner circle he had created so long ago, everyone chanting to him over and over again "What a loser!" This was coming for him so long ago already, the life of a degenerate pervert and voyeur already having the very real risk of his life coming to a wit's end by any particularly pissed woman who had learned of his presence. The life he had led up to this point built up to this, karma coming back to bite his ass in well over a few hundred kilometers per hour. As tears threaten to burst from his eye ducts, he mouthed a silent sorry over and over again to everyone he had wronged, desperation settling in his eyes, still hoping for a miracle.

Then came the big part. The spear went through his stomach cleanly and smoothly with its tip poking out of the virile young boy's upper back, and its sister weaponry cutting the rest of his body. He was crying at this point, but his voice was no longer discernible for he now lacked the ability to breathe, the only sound created being the fleshy squelching coming from his throat. Anyone and everyone he had told off despite justifiably defending themselves from Issei's calculating eyes had come to Issei's moment, every memory from the past coming to him now, even those that he had forgotten. The only emotion he could feel at that point was fear, and betrayal.

As his vision blurred, bleeding down to the cold concrete floor, one particular memory struck him as important. It was the day that a childhood friend of his had left his life for good, seemingly leaving the country forever with her family because of reasons that they never could really disclose. They made a promise that day, that they would meet again someday despite the distance between them. It was on that day that they left behind for him a gift, an old Christian bible for children lent to him as a keepsake, saying that despite the little use he would come up with, not being Christian himself, he should keep it anyway as a way to remember their time together anyway. The very same bible stained with his own blood, in his front right pocket, pages slowly ripped apart by the unnatural stretching that the boy's body had gone through.

It was at that very moment that he remembered their name. A dear friend of his... and someone he failed keep their promise with. Someone they would never meet again, a feat that was minor compared to the rest of the things he could never do again in the future, yet hurt him a lot more because of how close to them he was. As he slowly bled out while kneeling on the floor, Issei prayed for what was likely the very first time in his entire life, yet seemingly not at all the last. He prayed to God, that he'd do whatever he could to at least give himself another chance to make things right, to his parents, and to everyone. He slowly closed his eyes, too tired to keep fighting, to see everyone he loved one last time despite the circumstances, ready to die before the girl who killed him.

It was at that moment that his mana-infused blood hit a certain spot in the park, a certain summoning circle hidden and prepared by a particularly bored -though he was hired to do it- Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg who had seen one of the many trillion copies of the High School DxD universe and decided to implement something he thought would spice things up a little bit. A magical circle that activated, the dull red of the paint used to make it now glowing. In an instant, a bright flash enveloped the entire area, blinding Raynare who was now rapidly trying to defend herself from the sudden beam of holy light.

When the light receded, Raynare saw not the boy she had just scammed to his death, but rather a holy woman of the church brandishing a sword and flag-spear hand in hand. Her eyes screamed holy vengeance, and in Raynare's brief confusion, the girl attacked her, smiting the fallen angel with one well placed thrust. Raynare died almost instantly, all traces of her being disappearing into nothingness. Her screams of true fear upon her death brought a tear to the girl's eyes, who had not been willing to kill someone she truly loved for the few moments they had together. Even knowing her new purpose in life, she still possessed a heart that was all-loving, even to those who had abandoned the lord. Finishing a prayer to the fallen angel, she sighed, then took a moment to find something of great importance to her, a book once owned by someone who was particularly important to her life.

The Bible lied plainly where she once kneeled in submission, blood still staining the fabric, but the name on it remaining as legible as the day she first obtained it. An obvious sign of the love and care she had given to it. She walked over to the bench and put her palm on the cover, eyes slowly opening to see it by herself. Her gloved hands shakily moved the leaves on the holy book to one particular spot she would never forget, her best friend's favorite bible verse. John 15:12, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

The page where the verse was written had an envelope with a photo inside. The photo entailed the girl's former form and her friend at the zoo, in one of the few times their two families collaborated together in such an activity. Signed on the bottom right were their two names, 'Issei and Shidou, best friends forever.' She dropped the book and envelope to the floor, the girl breaking apart at the seams, the stress of her previous situation catching up with her. She fell onto the floor with her arms keeping her steady and away from the dirty park floor.

She cried, and thanked God for giving her this chance to live again, that she would do her best to make up for the prodigal lifestyle she had led until that very day, one she would leave behind for good. Even if it meant losing her gender, even if it meant losing practically her entire identity, it meant the world to her that she could live once again. Any moment not spent living her life to the fullest and spreading the word was not worth potentially dying again, so all of her feelings were that of gratitude. And even if _they_ didn't know who she was... She would send the message that the boy had loved them from the deepest portions of his heart, and ultimately, that was all that mattered.

With all the tears she needed shed were released from that point onwards, she was ready to move on. Her former life meant nothing now basically if she couldn't be identified as Issei Hyoudou anymore but instead a nigh identical clone of Joan of Arc. It was either walk the lonely road, or tell her parents everything. It would take forever to explain to them why or how their one and only son turned from a definitely Japanese high school student with a knack for women's anatomy suddenly had female plumbing and half French ancestry, but... something told her to try anyway, as if someone with even worse odds than her had told their parents about their current situation and got away with it and nary a scratch.

Her mind settled, she took the bible and envelope with her and walked an uncertain road home. Her mind wandered over certain topics, what life could be if she lived her life from this point this way forwards, if she didn't meet that disgusting wretch almost ten years ago, and so on. All that mattered now, though, was the present, and she would do her best to live life as she should've done so long ago. Smiling for once during the entire evening, she left the park with only the slightest bits of uncertainty filling her mind, as she nods off any oncoming passers by.

The entire thing was watched from a distance by a certain devil girl, who gawked at the entire thing, the scenario coming completely out of nowhere. First of all, Issei didn't really die, he just turned into a blonde bombshell of a nun, who then killed Raynare with one well executed thrust from her flag. And second of all, she just lost a potential asset because of some magical circle that she didn't even notice when looking at the park, and any advantage she could've gained from it was lost because it just up and disappeared upon its usage. Sighing in defeat, she followed the other girl home, hoping to at least goad her into allowing her to help her so that she could at least gain something out of the uneventful evening.

**I know that Jeanne doesn't actually have an anti-divine/demon skill, but I thought the scene looked really damn cool when I wrote it.**

**Side Story 2 - **A Miko, _and_ a fox girl?

"Issei-kun? I've gotta ask you a pretty important question." His senior, Rias Gremory, approached him early in the morning for whatever reason. He didn't know what for or why she needed him, and he honestly didn't want to go through the whole thing or help her with whatever the hell she wanted, but the fierce look on her eyes convinced him otherwise. She led them to a secluded location in the school, somewhere near her club room, a sinister vibe that surrounded the area like the frost on a window on a cold winter morning.

Walking up to the girl who stood on the other side patiently with an irritated look on his face, the high school boy responded with an irritated, "Yeah, well, what do you want?" Tapping his front pocket impatiently, she waited for the question to be asked. She gave him an odd look, and with a quick snap she asked.

"Why are you a kitsune?" The high school boy blinked, and sighed, planting a palm to his face. He whispered some words underneath his breath, and suddenly they were no longer behind the school, but instead inside a traditional Japanese household. The redheaded girl looked around the apparent illusion, thinking of the many different explanations that could come up for this, and thinking that perhaps she should've jumped the gun to set the stage in her advantage, but as it was the illusion was blocking the vision of everyone around her.

She heard a windy sound breeze through the windows, and Rias Gremory looked at the position of the once high school boy who was now enveloped in a bright yellow glow. Suddenly he shifted forms from a plain looking high school boy to a beautiful pink-haired woman with fox ears wearing a luxurious blue kimono. She had 3 golden fox tails poking out of the fabric behind her, and was holding both a mirror and a gohei fashioned from a branch, though Rias wouldn't have been surprised if her observation was incorrect. She looked mildly irritated, as if she didn't want to explain herself to her, if ever.

"Are you satisfied, Miss Gremory? I know you're a devil, by the way, so don't even bother trying to recruit me to your damned peerage." She tapped her fingers on the kotatsu that they suddenly found themselves sitting on, as she slowly poured some tea for her guest. "Well? Don't you have any questions?"

She did, but if she wanted to make the most out of this, she would have to word her questions very carefully. Coughing into her fist, she began. "Where are we?" To this, 'Issei' responded. "My mindscape, dear. It's somewhere I could relax and feel comfortable in after the stresses of the day. I've brought you here so that none could witness us talking to each other by such a sensitive topic as this." To prove her point, she suddenly willed a porn mag she witnessed her hiding inside of her locker, a glint of schadenfreude on 'Issei's' eyes upon seeing the otherwise calm and cool president sputter incoherently. Drinking a cup to wash the dirty taste in her mouth, Rias continued.

"What is your name?" An eyebrow raised, oh dear. "I mean, what is your name as in right now, not in the form you take normally—."

"I know exactly what you mean and to answer your question, I am basically two. You know me normally as Issei Hyoudou, and that is something I identify with, yes. Now, for the other name... You would have to ask another question to gain anything from me, dear." The fox girl's eyes narrowed menacingly, her mouth slightly open to reveal sharpened fangs. An illusion or not, it was pretty scary, but that wasn't really what Rias was afraid of. The girl oozed divinity and malice, but outwardly she seemed like the perfect Yamato Nadeshiko. A cool beauty, stoic and benevolent, but she seemed just as prepared for a confrontation as she would a traditional tea ceremony.

Rias gulped, and taking a moment to think about something fast, she asked hastily. "How did all of this happen?" The fox miko stared at her for a moment, and sighed. Scratching the back of her head a little bit, the first truly Issei thing that Rias thought was she had done, she began an overly simplified version of what happened to the high schooler.

"Basically, 'I' was sealed into a magical circle in the park one day, Rias-san. 'I' walked into it, then 'Issei' met 'me' inside of it. She turned me into a clone of hers before we fused completely, Rias. That person I fused with though..." Looking down a bit, her fox ears drooping down slightly. She played with her hands a bit, nervously trying to hide her anxiety. Her eyes showed great pain and sorrow, and as she coughed into her hand, she mentally prepared herself for her confession,

"That girl I fused with... She was -no, _I_ was one of Japan's greatest Yokai. I was, and am, Tamamo no Mae. In a way, I am both her and him. There was not much I could do about it then and now, so I simply learned to live with it..." She tapped her hands expectantly, but a large bead of sweat flowed down her chin down to her bosom, to which the kitsune shivered in response.

"And you, Miss Gremory, are the current heir to the Gremory family, right? Well, it's nice to meet you!" Tamamo-no-Mae said, offering her hand to the other girl. Rias smiled nervously, but accepted the hand inviting her to shake. Taking a moment to consider what she had just said, however, came a question that sprung up in her mind. She pulled her hand back as Tamamo gave her a questioning look, her head tilting to the side.

"Do your parents know?" Starting with the hard question, Tamamo-no-Mae thought deeply. Yet, she could only shake her head in a negative.

Issei Hyoudou, in a way, replied directly. "No. Not at all. If you couldn't tell, us kitsunes' ability to morph into just about anything came to me as an advantage. So they don't know at all that their beloved child was the bane of Japanese royal succession..."

She sighed, looking at the ceiling fan with some degree of hesitance. Breathing a deep breath, she continued. "In a way, I really am that boy. He lives on within me, another facet of my personality among the other 9. All I wish for in a life nowadays is a quiet life, one with no trouble at all. They'll live, unaware that the child they're raising was me. A fake, somewhat. Heh." She chuckled bitterly for a moment, tears settling as she glanced at her cup of tea. "Not like there's not much of a difference."

Rias held in all of her surprise that such a major figure in the world of Shinto was studying at Kuoh the entire time, but one question didn't slip past her mind. Why her? "Why tell all of this to me? You don't seem to trust me all that much, so why confide all of this to me? You didn't need to tell me basically everything, you know." Tamamo looked at her with a smile on her face, taking note of the confused expression on the occult research club president, and basically dictator of the entire school and considered, yeah, that was kinda dumb. But there was a very good reason for all of that.

"I needed someone for me to confess to after all of this years." Noting the brief look of confusion on her face, she continued. "I mean, it's very hard to keep such an important secret within yourself after all this time, right? I just wanted someone to talk to after all of those years, a listening ear who wouldn't judge me for who I was. And," she scratched her cheek. "If I withheld any information from you, the heiress of the Gremory clan, I'd be in really hot water, right? Telling you what you needed to know was all that I needed to do for the most part."

With all that said and done, the imaginary expanse disappeared, and they found themselves in the high school campus once again. Tamamo immediately took Issei's form, and looked at Rias patiently. He called for her attention and addressed one very important thing. "I don't want any trouble, Miss Gremory, and I just want a quiet life. We'll keep in touch about club membership soon enough, but not now."

"I won't help you in any of your personal pet projects unless I had something better to gain out of it. Understand me?" Rias could only agree. She had no clue to Tamamo's true parameters, nor of her skills, or abilities. Left behind with such a disadvantage, she didn't know what kind of compromise to accept except that one already handed over to her.

The two of them nodded to each other, and walked their separate ways. Everyone at least mildly familiar with Issei gawked at the thought that he could possibly find time to converse with Rias of all people, but as they stomped their way to his general direction, a pair of hands found their way to a certain pair of idiots, the owner of said hands glaring at the two to back off. Anyone who asked either of them on their perspective then were told off, both of them saying "None of your business."

**I think this one's the roughest around the edges of all the side stories I've written here. Oh well.**

**Side Story 3 -** Losing Yourself

Her hands were colder than the sweet embrace of death, so cold in fact that Issei thought that what was surrounding him was in fact the lowest circle of hell. Issei couldn't tell from the pain if it was hot or cold anymore. His mind was on the pain, and the strange numbness he could feel all around his body. He just didn't know what was happening to this body, slowly morphing into a clone of the older woman choking him. His mind felt fuzzy, as memories of a life he never knew flashed over and over in his mind. The smell of black powder, soot and blood overwhelmed him, of burning. Feelings of pain, treachery and betrayal. His hands burned, the roots of his hairs painfully lengthening behind him.

"Here's to a wonderful partnership, partner!" the girl said cheerfully. What was once a blindingly white void turned into a burning hellhole, fire reaching all the way to the empty ceiling. A massive skeletal being appeared before him, ignored by the feeling on his hand. Smoke and soot flowed out of every hole, making him hack and cough violently. In his delirium, he saw many more things that he did not know personally, yet felt like he should. As if she(...?) participated in those actions herself... Many names came through her mind. One, Hashiba, _then Toyotomi, _Hideyoshi, _her right hand man and beloved friend. They had gone through just about everything together, and his camaraderie and wit were things to be held at as inspiration. _Two, Tokugawa Ieyasu, _a boring old man she never knew would be one of her greatest advisers. She didn't always agree with his ridiculously slow tactics, but she felt that he did the job well whenever it counted, which was all that mattered, no?_ And 3, her name...

What was her name? Issei Hyoudou asked herself this, despite an inner portion of her soul telling her already that she already knows. Of course it was, she knew what her name was! Her parents gave it to her when she was born, after all, _even if she had left it behind so long ago for her new name. _Yes, she nodded to herself, accepting the name that she had always known. That was her name. Oda Nobunaga.

Issei's body shifted, his hips rearranging, shoulders moving, and the inside portions of her body rearranged to fit the new plumbing. Her crotch gained a strange warmth that she welcomed for whatever reason, sucking in her outer genitalia and forming a new organ. The transformation was almost complete at this point, the clothes the former boy was wearing slowly turning a darker color, turning into a military officer's uniform, her shoes turning a metallic gold and lengthening slowly to her knees, and a hat forming seemingly out of nowhere on the top of her head. The child blinked, and each time her facial features were molded into an exact copy of the girl who turned her into this, and her eyes turning from their brown coloring to a bright red. One last thing had to be done, and if she were to be the successor of the great unifier of Japan, then so be it.

The older girl watched all that had happened with dull eyes and a knowing smirk, then recoiled as a headache struck her head. Her vision blurred as her irises gained a shine that wasn't there earlier, her face contorting into a frown. She blinked in pain as new memories surged forth, a girl she never knew, a goodbye that hurt her, and parents that actually loved her? No, that wasn't right, was it? She asked herself, then looked at the object she was gripping tightly, the throat of a young girl who _looked just like her_, Suddenly she realized just exactly was happening, but even as she tried to remove her hands from the girl who was now deliriously staring at her in a rather creepy fashion, she simply couldn't. Bile formed on her throat as she began shaking the kneeling girl, shouting at her. "Who are you? Tell me Your name! Please!"

The other girl looked at her funny, as she asked back tiredly. "Who am I...? I'm Oda Nobunaga, silly, just like you!" The shaking stopped as Nobunaga took a moment to process what the younger had just said, who was content simply grinning at the older girl, her hands going cold as she realized just how deep the brainwashing had gone. A heroic spirit could resist mind control at this level, no doubt, but a child with absolutely no experience with the supernatural could do nothing about it. She felt an emotion she hadn't experienced in decades, fear. Yet it wasn't herself she feared for, but the child whom she incidentally choked and transformed into so as to possess her. The very same one she now shared memories with, and in desperation reached into her inner mind to make the kid _remember._

Calling the girl's attention once again, who had almost began sleeping on her hands, she asked. "Miki, Goro, Shidou, please! Remember the people who took care of you, who loved you and gave you the life you had now! Don't give up on me now, please! You have so much to live for, you don't have to become me to do that!" Yet her words did little to call on her attention, her newly baptized clone tilting her head in apparent confusion. Looking up to the 'sky', as it were, she took the moment to see the world around them shatter, a darkness enveloping the entire area. It was here that she noticed something peculiar, the tips of her fingers melting and dematerializing at the same time, as her body, her _soul_ closing in on the girl she was embracing. This, Nobunaga knew, was the final step. This was where their souls would fuse, every inch of her being with another to create something new. The younger girl had fallen unconscious, tearing up in acknowledgement, knowing all too well in a way that they had both lost.

As the world around her fell apart, Nobunaga hugged the girl who lost everything, and was unlikely to come up ever again as a sentient being. She was the only one capable of living through such a horror, after all, so no matter how much she detests having to do this, having to strip the life of someone practically brain dead was the only way to do it. A clone who was her in everything except where it counted. She hugged the girl closer, tears falling from her eyes with her arms locking onto each other.

Almost every fabric of her being were inside of the girl who suddenly seemed much older, a good 7 or so if her calculations of their physical age differences were correct, and all she could do was wait out the storm. As their minds melded, their bodies fused and the rest of their being turned into a new one, with her on the driver's wheel, she soberly said one last thing. "I am so sorry..."

Her words became the cincher, the last thing that was needed before everything went black for good. Her thoughts became his, and his thoughts became hers, and suddenly they were one. A bright flash enveloped the brimstone and fire, and suddenly there was nothing.

At this moment, Issei woke up with a start, his face meeting the ground. He lifted his body slightly off the ground and with an ache in his head. With a yelp, he pushed himself off the ground entire, his beloved Gameboy falling to the ground by his weakened grip. Issei backed away from the dull red circle, heartbeat accelerating.

By some instinct, Issei reached down to his waist and pulled a gleaming katana from the sheath on his side before the circle that had scarred him for life. He felt safer for a moment, until rational thought had pointed out that he had never touched a katana in his entire life, yet here he was, holding one with his gloved(?) hands as if it were drilled into him. He also wasn't the type to wear hats as a fashion sense either, yet the feeling of fabric around his forehead was quite clear to him.

With a practiced motion that Issei never practiced, he turned the flat portion of the blade to face him, and suddenly it all made sense to her. The reflection held no resemblance to her former form, a hand rubbing her teenaged face. Oda Nobunaga had taken over for the most part, and yet Hyoudou Issei existed just the same, even if only subconsciously.

There was no chance for her to return home, not like this, and so, steeling her resolve, she sheathed the blade and moved away from the park, making sure to avoid any conflict that could bring her into attention. Abandoning her former life was not ideal, but would her parents believe her claims? Would they be so optimistic that for one moment they would believe, that the boy who just left home teary eyed upon learning of their best friend departure had aged 7 years and turned into her, a one-to-one clone of one of Japan's great unifiers? No, the part that was distinctly cynical and Oda Nobunaga told her, they wouldn't.

With any luck, her parents would try to create a child again that would fill in the vacant position she had inadvertently created. She looked back at the fountain upon hearing a woman shout her name in the distance, looking at her former mother scoop the GameBoy in the floor in confusion. She ran all over the place, looking for someone who didn't necessarily exist anymore.

She teared up a little bit at the sight, her mother asking every single passerby if they had seen a small cheery little boy who ran all over the place. She really wanted to help, she really did, but there simply wasn't much for her to do. Sighing deeply, she turned her back away from the sight, and walked away.

**Basically if Nobunaga fused with Issei instead of changing places every now and then. Except that the fusion and TG happened inside of the magic circle instead of outside, so it's just a little bit weirder, no? Oh well. This scenario is now something for alternate universe me to handle, who I no doubt just wrote down the original scene.**

**And that's about it. Sorry if you were expecting a full fledged chapter, boys and girls. I didn't have the time to make it just yet, so you just sit there patiently, alright?**

**This is TaekiAnahazu, signing off. Thank you for your patronage.**

In an undisclosed location...

...

...

...

"A strong mana signature matching the dragon we detected in Kuoh a few months ago...?"

Beat.

...

"It's moving in to a local elementary school? Is that right?"

...

...

The sound of tapping on a wooden surface...

...

"I see. Send _her_ in to intercept. Make it quick."

...

...

...

KA-LICK.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

...

**Did you think I'd actually upload something without at least some plot relevance? (It didn't do much, yeah, but hell if I didn't try.)**


	6. Chapter 5 - Premonition

**What ho, I live. The hell have I been doing the past few weeks, you may ask? The answer: overly complicated school projects, and Nerofest. It was very difficult to take my hands off the lottery this time thanks to the 3 turn setup I had and my IPad being much, much faster than my phone, so I rushed it a bit this time. Expect the edited chapter 4 in a few, I guess.**

**Nobunaga didn't actually have the military uniform during her life, apparently. She knitted it when she was in the Throne of Heroes so that she would look cooler or something. Given that Chacha and Nobukatsu are wearing very similar clothes to what she has on, I very much doubt that claim. If I had to gander what she would wear in life, though, I'm thinking of Samurai Warriors Nobunaga.**

**Forgive me if I got any historical details wrong, by the way, or more importantly, any continuity errors. I have a habit of doing that.**

She was lying down on the field, relaxing. Resting. Two things that were uncommon to see from the bloodthirsty commander, but who's to say she wasn't aware of that. She just wanted to take it easy for the meantime, stretch her arms and legs for a bit. They were really stiff after all of that fighting, and she was already getting tired of the smell of sweat and blood staining her senses.

Nobunaga looked at the man kneeling on the grass next to her, writing something down, probably paperwork or whatever; she didn't like having to write down the terms and conditions for every single fight that they had. The man had wild hair, like a lion's mane and was intently focused on his work. He was Toyotomi Hideyoshi (though officially he wasn't called that yet, a strange voice pointed out), her subordinate, retainer, and very close friend. He, alongside Ieyasu, were the warlords who would unify Japan long after she was gone, the future of their beloved country depending on their success.

But right now, as they are today? They were closer to newborn babes than the monsters they would eventually become in the future... well, mostly Hideyoshi since she always thought that Ieyasu was kind of a wimp, but the point still stands! She always knew the latent potential they both had, Ieyasu with his patience and strategy, and Hideyoshi with his charisma and great power in the battlefield.

She didn't need to worry about the future right now, though. Only dreamers who don't act on their desires do that, and she certainly did her very damn best to get what she wanted. She just beat the first encroaching warlord coming to take her territory with cunning and cleverness, the loser who she had already forgotten the name of, took their bait hook, line and sinker. It wasn't a very 'honorable' tactic, but she didn't care for such matters anyway.

Hideyoshi was practically an afterthought, some random soldier she hired to carry her shoes around the province. He did his job well enough, but what she didn't expect was his uncanny ability to handle so many foes on his own. Some enemy soldiers managed to go through their ambush and tried to lop her head off, a very difficult task indeed since she could handle them on her own, but what she didn't expect was him coming to her aid with his blade, and slowly cut his way around each of them all on his own. When they fell, she knew there was something special about this run off the mill soldier, someone of a completely unremarkable family and history, and yet he had shown a finesse that was unseen in the rest of her army.

He was basic. Learning only the basics of soldiering, he should've been unremarkable in every way, yet he handled himself like he was a professional. He would get there on his own for sure, but as it was now? He was nothing special.

Still, though, his effort was to be praised. She was impressed, a difficult feeling for her to attain, and that was all that mattered. She could be patient, just this once. He'll prove himself in the future over and over again, and her choice of retainer will decide the future of the country, their vision. And she knew the decision would not be a waste.

Snapping out her daydreaming by the sound of falling liquidd, she sees Hideyoshi pouring a cup of tea for her. It didn't quite occur to her that such a person could be so anal about tea ceremonies and the processes about it, but that was besides the point. Sitting upright with her legs crossed, she gingerly takes the cup with both of her hands and sips it quietly, thinking thoughtfully.

She stops momentarily, and steals a quick glance at Hideyoshi, who does the same. She smirks slightly, and returns to sipping her cup silently, to his confusion. Gathering the courage to talk to his superior, he asks.

"Sire, is there something wrong? You've been awful quiet lately." Nobunaga chuckled, responding to the question.

"Saru." His growing confusion brought another chuckle to Nobunaga, who began pointing at her face. She then gestured to his face, Hideyoshi still nonplussed.

"Could you elaborate a bit more? I don't really get it," he asked Nobunaga. She replied.

"Saru. You look like a monkey, Hideyoshi, so I'm calling you that now." This blunt response brought a deep sigh to Hideyoshi, who was now rubbing his forehead. "It's not too bad, you know. It makes you pretty identifiable, if you think about it."

"Fair enough, sir." He motioned to the kettle still full of tea for Nobunaga, to which Nobunaga handed her cup to him. Even knowing the life she would have in the future, it would do her well to befriend her subordinates and make them closer at least this one time. A partnership, she thinks.

"Yes," she nodded, "A partnership." She stood up upon finishing her cup and left the field to walk to their camp. This would satisfy her for now.

Nausea suddenly hit her, and she fell down to floor as her soldiers arrive to come help her. Colors reflected every portion of her line of sight, and she could feel nothing else. Bile built up near her throat, and she suddenly felt nothing, her body turning into dust even if she didn't know what was happening to her. This never actually happened, but nightmares had a habit of twisting beloved memories like nothing else.

A wave moved around Nobunaga's vision, and suddenly she found herself somewhere else. It was large, empty, and devoid of absolutely anything. The only things of note was her, and a fearful child, kneeling on the floor. She felt compelled to walk forward, to turn him into... her? What?

She did it because she was told to, and following the orders made her feel good, her eyes growing and duller and mind growing ever so number, as every bit of her being flowed into the boy, burning his clothes and his very being. Purified and distilled essence of her, transforming him down to the very soul into another her. Satisfaction and pleasure flowed every bit of her being as she slowly desecrated him, and then it stopped. The color lacking from her eyes suddenly became very bright, and very scared.

She jumped back, mortified at what she had done. But there wasn't much else she could do, was there? She crawled slowly to him, hugging him tightly as the world slowly became black.

The voices around her grew louder and louder, until...

BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP.

Bump! A hand slapped the alarm clock, shutting it off for the morning. The girl lying on the bed woke up in a cold sweat, her eyes bloodshot and her skin pale. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

She gathered a little of what she remembered from her dream. The first, was a fond memory of Nobunaga she could recall. It was one of those things that established that Oda Nobunaga wasn't a completely heartless warlord of Japan, though her nerdy and geeky manner of fact towards her copies of Shonen Jump convinced her that much already. She had friends, a sense of humour, and people she could always rely on. That was Hideyoshi to her, wasn't it? It definitely was...

The second dream, however... She shivered. Having to basically reignite memories of the worst day of her life was not pleasant at all. She didn't want to know how her perspective on her tenant was twisted like that. As she could clearly recall, Nobunaga did not want any of this to begin with; if things had gone as planned, she would've been master and servant as normal, but instead some jackass added something extra to the mix and turned her into... this.

She couldn't blame someone who had no choice in the matter, no, not at all. That... thing with her face in her dream, that wasn't her. That wasn't Nobunaga; the eyes of the monster she saw through was a fake. She knew her better than anyone else alive now. That figment was only a result of what she witnessed yesterday morning. It certainly made some level of sense. The fear on her face, and the tears on her eyes from witnessing the monstrosity were all numbed by both Nobunaga's iron hold on her body and the sheer brutality displayed by her. That such a disgusting a creature was so easily disposed off didn't change anything to her, she was still very scared, felt so helpless before it.

And yet, that answer only felt half correct to her. Whatever strange feelings and thoughts she felt then didn't matter now, but they were part of the solution she thought. Shaking her head, she looked up at the ceiling, her mind thoughtful.

She felt a cold tap on her shoulder, wind blowing through her bare pits, and there she realized Nobunaga was trying to catch her attention. A faint sounding "Issei!" was heard, and the person referred to finally responded with "I'm up, I'm up! What is it, Nobbu?" Her voice was laced with some irritation, though her sentiments were appreciated.

'_You were breathing heavily in your sleep. And you were tearing up a lot... What did you see when you were dreaming?_' Issei froze at the question proposed by Nobunaga, now aware that her feelings were obvious from the start. She pushed away some hair blocking her eyes, then responded.

"It was... a bad dream, I guess." Nobunaga noted that Issei could only reluctantly respond to her question, a sign of apprehension. '_And? What did you see exactly?_'

"It was one of your memories, Nobbu, I-" She mentally tripped over the referred nickname, but it seemed that Nobunaga didn't find it any more or less disrespectful, so she just continued as is. "I know that it was how it was supposed to go, I guess. But something... something went wrong in that recreation."

'_Yeah...? What was it... It seemed pretty rough._" She gulped, and breathed in.

"It was you that was wrong, Nobbu. I don't know how to describe it, but you walked to me. While I was you in that scene and there was this big empty canvas, and the field burst into flames and I..." She sighed. "I don't really know what happened. I trust you already, Nobu. You saved me and my parents' lives not simply because I was your host, but because they were people to be saved..."

'_...We can talk a bit more later if you're not up for it right._' She could only agree. She took her backpack downstairs as she readied for school. She ate her breakfast and went to school, hoping to God or whatever other deity was out there that they didn't make too much of a fuss over her new appearance.

She has to be thankful that the metamorphosis didn't change her physical appearance too drastically, outside of the hair which was now hidden rather elaborately thanks to some engineering on Nobunaga's part. She wasn't so sure about the details, but from what she understood it basically had something to do with Nobunaga's Demon King skill which let her essentially remove an entire portion of her hair like it wasn't there at all. When asked how the hell that works, even knowing that Nobumaga and every single heroic spirit out there based their powers on their feats and the things they were called in life, Nobunaga told her not to overthink it too much. Essentially, if someone was known in history to be very reprehensible and evil, earning a reputation that they could be called a 'monster', they would gain a skill called 'Innocent Monster', twisting their appearance into what they were remembered as.

Nobunaga's Demon King skill was special because they called her that in life and death, allowing her to modify her appearance as she pleased. She didn't know the full extent of the powers, but if Nobunaga's word was to be taken at face value, it could change her hair color at the very least, citing that her hair brightened to a very rich red whenever she got particularly passionate. Nobunaga did say along the lines that the red hair was a bit closer to what would happen whenever she got fired up or something, but her theory was correct and she could probably get just the right color to what she needed.

A few tweaks with the assistance of Nobunaga, and her hair shifted from the Yamato Nadeshiko style long black hair to something that just hanged off her shoulders, a small tinge of brown more obviously seen when exposed to sunlight. She didn't need to change her facial features, not that she could seeing how her appearance was bits and pieces of Nobunaga all over and cloned wherever possible, especially how relatively no name and unpopular she was before to begin with. If she was anymore identifable than she was before, and wasn't as much of a recluse outside of her very small circle of friends now rendered a 1 dimensional dot thanks to to Irina's departure a very short while back, then this would have been infinitely more difficult than it could have been.

Arriving at the school gate, she prayed silently and hoped that whatever the hell happened inside there won't affect her negatively in any way. If they connected the dots... if they figured out that something was wrong about ber, then she could say her life as a sovereign human being was over for good. Forever. Cynical thoughts were not the ideal method of preparing for the worst, she was well aware of that, but the tension was still heavy on her shoulders and she simply didn't have much choice.

But then again, there didn't seem to be much of a response. Certainly, seeing a school boy with shoulder length hair wasn't that weird nowadays with loosening fashion restrictions, but come on. She actually thought she was cute, for goodness sake, if no cute boys or girls took notice of her walking past them then there wouldn't be much of a point hiding it in the first place!

She did bring up the possibility of people not really caring if a new guy went past them, that they had better things to do than worry about some new student they didn't know about. Sighing in defeat, she opened the door to her classroom and walked to her designated chair. She waited in anxious anticipation as her classmates slowly filled the room, some talking to each other and others walking in with half-lidded eyes, obviously very sleepy and experiencing 'I hate Mondays syndrome'.

She resisted the urge to breathe deeply as the teacher walked in holding a clipboard with everyone's names. They all did the formal greeting as the classes begin, as she slowly waited for the teacher to recite her name. She curled up against herself and withheld the urge to barf, nausea setting and so many other things that could make things even worse. So caught up within her thought that she didn't notice the teacher calling her name, walking towards her, and flicking their finger on her forehead.

"Wha-!?" Was the only unintelligible response she could manage. The teacher waited patiently, before waving her hand in a circular fashion.

"Hyoudou Issei." Blinking as she processed the usage of her name, she smiled nervously as she looked up. Opening her mouth to reply, she said.

"P-Present ma'am." The teacher smiled, and twisted around as she slowly walked back to her table. Noting that her teacher didn't notice anything out of the blue, acting as if nothing at all has changed, she didn't sit down just yet as Issei called for her teacher's attention. The teacher sat down on her table, and as she processed the state of the classroom, she looked at Issei standing up still. A reply was interrupted by Issei's faster response, saying.

"Ma'am... Don't you think there's anything different about me? Anything at all?" Her teacher looked puzzled at the question, as if the answer was both redundant and obvious. The teacher's head tilted, her mouth open slightly. She put her hand on her chin, staring deadpan at Issei's serious expression. She sighed, and began.

"... I'm not sure what you mean by that, Issei. As far as I could tell nothing had changed at all. Although," her hand began tapping on the side of her head. "You look more haggard than I remember... Have you been getting enough sleep lately? Been thinking about your friend Shidou lately?" She sighed, thinking about the two's friendship over the years in the school. They were practically attached to the waists with how close they were, but the moment she left for London the kid started getting all sorts of depressed that it was almost impossible to not feel bad for him.

"If you've been worried sick about your friend for the past few days, then please, consider your health first. Shidou is fine, but at the rate you're going, they'll need to worry about you instead." Looking at her watch, she noted how close it was to the class's first period. "Was there anything else you needed?"

Issei was stunned. She knew that there was something off about her, should be something off about her. She had changed in every aspect, included gender and physical sex, two things that cannot be determined without opening her pants, yet it should have been obvious that something was wrong about her appearance anyway. She should've been seen, there was no way that her appearance could get away with so much leeway.

She sat down on her chair, deep in thought. Thinking it on it clearly, there was not much for her to think about on in the first place. She shouldn't be worried or concerned that there didn't seem to be a problem in her classes at all, but something inside of her -that wasn't Nobu, she stayed silent the entire time for whatever reason- told her to be more wary. Things like this didn't happen out of the blue, she should've been called out on multiple times already, but she simply wasn't.

She looked back up to the teacher's table, her teacher picking her books and purse from the side of the table while looking at her existential crisis with worry on her face. The woman visibly gulped, and gathered some courage to say one last thing before she left. "If you need help with whatever troubles you have, Issei... just tell me. Bottling it up isn't healthy in any shape or form."

With that said, the teacher walked out of the room with a blank, professional look. Issei watched the entire thing, considering the possibility that her teacher misinterpreted what she told her. What her request meant at first, as they were probably aware of her grief when they saw him stomping out of the school all the way home. It was a habit for her at the time, every day he would run to the school waiting for someone who wouldn't come to him anymore, wasn't around to help him up when he needed help.

She appreciated that thought, knowing that some people were concerned for her well-being outside of her family. She came close to ending her grief for good, a few days back, but uh, you know what happened. The class waited patiently for their first period class teacher to arrive. Issei had her hands curled up together, joints leaning on the table and upper arms pointing upwards.(1) The gesture obscured her facial features, and anyone of her classmates who bothered looking at her reeled in fear at the fierce and predatory look on her face. She took note of this and sneered, scaring off many more people who tried looking at her face.

It wasn't her fault that Nobunaga's facial features were perfect for murdering people, but she didn't intend for any of that to happen. She wanted to look thoughtful and insightful, to look smarter than her age would normally suggest, but instead the combination of her sour mood and Nobunaga's experience with scaring people after so many years of tormenting Buddhists and Shintoists gave her an expression that seemed to imply a person that wanted to cut you up and eat you for dinner. Literally.

As time went on and teachers went back and forth from the classroom, she seemingly went back to her old habits and acted as if nothing had changed at all. It was only fitting, anyway; it seemed she didn't have much to worry about in the first place and she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself. Classes went on as usual up to when the midday bell rung throughout the school, bringing all students to the cafeteria or their respective tables to eat their lunchtime meal.

It was after eating her lunch and entering the (male) restroom that she noticed something really off. Washing her face and hands on the sink, she looked at the mirror before her and saw something behind her, looked briefly at the figure, blinked, then it seemed who or whatever was there was gone. Taking a moment to look at herself, she realized that the minute transformations she made in order to fit in better reverted themselves as if she never made them at all. Actually, looking back on it, they never really stuck on her person the entire time, noting that for most of her morning periods that whenever she looked at the windows it was as if her hair reverted to their original length as decided by Nobunaga's physical characteristics.

So basically, for whatever reason everyone was acting as if she always looked like this and didn't call into attention her changed appearance, her long hair or the more effeminate facial features in general. They treated her in much the same way she used to do -that is, leaving her be unless they needed her for something like a project or whatever-, which meant that she shouldn't need to show her exasperation that nobody really noticed anything off. But she should, because something inside of her was telling her that something was really off.

She could 'feel' it in the air somehow, a sense of wrongness permeating the atmosphere. It could tell her many things about her school now, from the amount of people stationed nearby, how much mana could be coalesced by all of the children and teachers running about, and all the way to the sensation that something or someone was watching her from every part of the school. If she didn't feel as if something very horrible was going to happen soon, then she would've thanked whoever the hell made the spell since it would have made her life a whole lotta easier. Instead, she's reminded by that one time Gintoki got replaced by a copycat of his in the Gintama manga, when one moment Gin-san was living his life as normal until some jerk with a similar name and set of abilities swooped in and stole everything from him.

She was sure that she wouldn't have to worry about being removed from everyone's minds, at least. Whoever the hell blinded the minds of the masses had full intentions of supporting her efforts, at least for now. It didn't occur to her at first that maybe either the jerk wanted to throw her off guard at first and lead her astray, allowing for an easier ambush, or, if her suspicions were correct, the enemy she had was a demon either trying to kill her, as the first option suggests, or was trying to strike a deal with her. The local supernatural forces of the earth she lived in was very different from the one that Nobunaga remembered and made comparisons to every now and then, so it wouldn't have been too surprising if a daemon attempted to bribe her into joining them, she knew how powerful Nobunaga could be in a good day after all.

Thinking on it, despite most of her personality remaining the same for her last few days as life as Nobunaga's clone -though Nobunaga indignantly preferred the term "successor" whenever she referred to it as such, so maybe she'd use that term more-, she noticed that alongside the ruthlessness and skill she had inherited from her tenant, she had also gained much of her tactical knowledge and expertise of military tactics, adding onto her comparatively shorter life span as a large portion of her accommodated the life's worth of knowledge and wisdom. It became her habit now to calculate risks, consider possibilities, and wager hypotheses in the field of battle as if it were nothing, and honestly? It kind of scared her.

She had to repeat the mantra that it wasn't Nobu's fault for all of these things to keep tacking onto herself as she slowly began accustomed to life as a woman, because really, the personality changes were only inevitable with a fully grown woman actively taking a role in a child's life, her personality bleeding over where it wouldn't be appropriate and giving her a sensation of adulthood that added onto her preexisting maturity. The memories appearing in her dreams and her being able to almost seamlessly act the part of a youthful Oda Nobunaga pretty much cemented that. To be honest, the past 3 days didn't give her much opportunity to do all of that in the first place, but now it was as if she already knew what life was and should be like. If there's anything that was certain to her, it was that children were very impressionable and she was no exception.

Not that children would be carbon copies of the adults surrounding them, of course, but she was a special case among special cases considering that absolutely no one expected her to possibly be an avatar of one of Japan's greatest warlords, and part of that contributed to her maturity. She had Nobunaga, a person she had learned to be very boisterous, be inside of her buddy all the time, so how could she not pick up a few traits? Regardless, that was a discussion for another day, looking at the clock(2) reflected on the mirror before her, and if her understanding was correct, it was roughly 5 minutes before 1 O'Clock, and her classroom was on the other side of the school, so she had to hurry.

She washed her face on the sink once more and wiped her face with a paper towel, then walked out of the room with both hands in her pockets. Her thoughts were of the inner monologue she just had inside the restroom, thinking thoughtfully of the implications that may as well occur. She still couldn't shake away the feeling that something or someone was watching her, probably something to do with the demonic figure she saw in the restroom.

It was 4 O'Clock in the afternoon that classes ended, and she stayed over after volunteering to clean the room by herself, to use the time to think on it more. The rest of the day seemed to have proceeded perfectly fine, and for a few moments Issei felt like things were going to be fine, and everything was going back to normal. Yet, her experience with the supernatural a day before still echoed deeply inside of her heart, and the artificial, yet natural behavior of the students and teachers roaming around the halls, at least in relation to things about her. There was simply a sense of wrongness she couldn't shake off, and that included the feeling of being watched.

Shrugging it off, she walked out of the classroom with her bag slung on one arm also holding a chocolate bar, her filecase on the other while slowly munching on the sweet. There wasn't much else for her to to do at that point, and so she left the school building just as the sun began to set. Unbeknownst to her, a feminine figure with black wings slowly crept from her classroom, smiling, and walked to her general direction.

It was when she arrived at the park was when she knew something was well and truly wrong. The park was empty, not at all normal considering how often it was used as a road to connect the two halves of the city being in the exact center, and it obviously it wasn't quite night yet, was it? Not only that, but it was like the heavy atmosphere she felt at school followed her, and it was enough to make shivers go up her spine.

And then she came. An woman who was older by at least 8 years physically strutted along the paved road, heels clacking on the floor and simply exuding sex appeal. The distinction was very necessary for her, as the elder woman had an air of inhumanity and age that even Nobunaga didn't have when they first met each other. Her otherworldly smile didn't have much of an outward effect for her, seeing how she didn't even hit puberty yet and the simple lack of maturity that was needed to even bother with such a thing, but the suggestive appearance was still enough to bring a heavy blush to her face. The woman walked to her with a menacing smile on her face, promising either a long night in the bedroom, or something far worse.

She came close enough for her hand to motion into caressing Issei's cheek, setting off her stranger danger alarms immediately and made her want to go away as fast as humanely possible in her currently very weak possible. In fact, she hadn't felt this much in danger in her entire life, and the last time anything close was that pansy devil they beat up just the day before, but she didn't feel so much afraid of it and was more of a disgusted feeling. Even if she wanted to react though, what could she do? There was absolutely no way she should be fighting someone of this level in a public location like this, and that was even before she noticed the black wings on her back and the spears slowly materializing to end her life immediately.

Suddenly the intruder frowned, and flew towards her in a speed that no normal human could handle. Nobunaga took control immediately, and blocked the attack to the best of her ability considering her limitations with the immediate summoning of an arquebus, keeping it on for just long enough to keep her on her toes. She prepared to put another one near the enemy's throat, but didn't bother after sensing two normal human beings jogging to their general area. This was something even Issei knew was a problem, being an avid reader of urban fantasy stories himself, he understood the necessity of keeping the masquerade on whatever fantastic beings that would risk revealing themselves to the public eye.

The Fallen Angel, as Nobunaga understood it, had the same look in her eye as well, and attempted to pull her prey into a situation that she could control. That in itself didn't work, as Nobunaga held onto the Fallen Angel's bosom and jumped toward a location she knew for certain would be devoid of witnesses, as the passenger gasped in pain, pleasure and surprise at the sudden gesture. She especially underestimated the power of the pint sized brat that she was certain would be easy pickings according to their given intel.

She growled at the mere idea that she was working on incomplete intelligence in the first place, and the concept that she even considered such a ridiculous notion in the first place. I mean, come on, what kind of idiot would underestimate their opponent and give them the breathing room they needed? It was completely unprecedented for her in the first place, so considering that and the extremely elaborate creeping about that she had done during her tour in the child's school should have given her the basic idea that she should've killed her in her sleep to begin with. What she was particularly irritated at, though, was the fact that said brat was carrying her with strength that really shouldn't have, especially knowing that a newly born Dragonborn (author says: lol) shouldn't be capable of harnessing all of their powers so easily. Besides, summoning guns? The hell? That's at least a year in prison considering the country's draconic gun laws, and that was barely scraping the barrel!

The "pint sized brat" didn't have much to say herself, but the reigning personality at the time had to physically restrain her host's body's attempts to urinate, and that was shifting a very large part of her focus on attempting to both beat this ho and trying not to pee herself. The chocolate bar she was eating was now lodged between her opponent's large tracts of lands, and though the bitch didn't notice yet or cared, it was of her own honest opinion that such examples of food abuse shall not stand for, and she will be kicking her ass at this very moment. With that said, the host herself was now screaming on the inside as much on the outside, something that Nobunaga didn't have much capability of fixing seeing how their synchronization levels went to shit just an hour ago. The screeching was interpreted by the opposing party not as a scream for help but rather as a very hysterical warcry. Considering the context, and the shock of being manhandled by someone so tiny, we wouldn't blame her.

They arrived at the clearing that Nobunaga had left the devil corpse in the last time, very quickly slamming the fallen angel to the ground, who waved magic hands to attempt to skewer the child with her spears, who quickly dodged most of them as space was made between them. She was evidently very incensed at this point, so she attempted to vent most of her frustration at the younger by taunting. "Is this honestly all that you have, child? I've barely been hurt yet, but I can already tell that you're tired." She prepared for another assault on Nobunaga, who braced for impact.

Nobunaga leaned her gun on her shoulder, and breathed heavily. She wasn't completely on the money, but it was close to the general idea. Issei's body still had its limitations despite the overwhelming mana produced by her and the world around her. Oh sure, Issei could run circles around the city with very little trouble, but that didn't mean much in a high stakes situation like this. Issei just didn't have it in her just yet, and more importantly, she was still a kid, and they die very easily, and that wouldn't change until they had the opportunity to fix it in the future.

Still, though, they still had plenty of energy to spare, and it would be just enough to beat this stranger on her own. Pointing the gun at Raynare (a name neither of them are aware of just yet, by the way), she warned her. "I don't think you're in much of a good shape either, ma'am. You seem to be in worse than I am, considering the state of your wings." Stoic in the field of battle, provided that such a thing was needed at the time, she shot bullet after bullet at the fallen angel, not fearing the possibility of discovery thanks to Serafall's wards, dodging attacks and sending some back. Raynare did much of the same, but making sure to avoid the bullets at the best of her ability. She made sure to come here for two very good reasons, one being that Serafall was still in Kuoh for a while longer and would be capable of sensing her immediately, and also because sound and smell was very muffled here. It was the best place for her to stall time before Serafall could come by as backup,

Back at the park itself, the two joggers arrived at the scene just a little before they could witness Nobunaga and Raynare brawl, their minds wondering why the hell there was such a big mess there, with one of them thinking that the blood and black feathers came from a Black Chicken sacrificed to whatever dark god was out there, connecting the dots between them and the spooky magic circle reported on the news just a few days before. As they talked to each other about the events that might have transpired, they notice an even bigger mess leading into the woods, sparking their curiousity as the gates to hell invited them in. While doing so, a chuuni grown woman walked behind both of them, and karate chopped their necks to knock them out, carried them to a bench and used a few magic spells to clean up the mess and remove the joggers' memories of anything important, and filling in the funnier parts with half truths that seemed more believable than whatever actually happened.

Serafall Leviathan looked at the opening with a frown on her face, realizing that just leaving the kid to her own devices would have risked her life even knowing that she could handle herself very well. She had come to appreciate the kid a little bit more, who reminded her so much of her little sister with her attempts of being demure and polite to her, and even learning of her draconic descent didn't change much. She was also pretty sure that the dragon rumored in Kuoh was supposed to be a kid around the same age, if Azazel's information was correct but she would jump that hurdle when it came. It seemed very likely that she was the dragon they were looking for anyway...

Speaking of Azazel, she was pretty sure that dirty old man didn't send the fallen angel after Issei in the first place. It wasn't like him to attempt to snuff out a kid like that so easily with so much potential, loose cannon or not. If her suspicions were correct then it was more than likely that Kokabiel was more than possibly the responsible party behind this ambush. With such an obvious attempt on assassination within Devil territory, this would surely spark more flames to the growing bonfire, and she had to make sure that such a thing didn't come to pass. Taking a deep breath, she ran towards her wards with a serious expression on her face, hoping to whatever deity that wouldn't burn her alive that they didn't kill each other just yet.

Both fighters were breathing heavily, exhausted by the constant fighting. Raynare was reaching her limits at this point, a few stray bullets hitting her burned her and it hurt a lot and she didn't know why. Nobunaga wasn't much better either, blood going down her forehead and mouth, and a few scratches all across her body because the few botched times she attempted to dodge and got hit by another spear instead. Smiling weakly, she made jumped backwards, making more distance between her and her opponent. She was weak, but she'll live, and there wasn't much that this enemy could do about it. Taking this opportunity to ask her enemy her intentions, she shouted.

"Why are you doing this? I did nothing to you, and you attacked me unprovoked!" She made an angry face and pointed at Raynare, absolutely furious, while continuing on with her questioning. To this, Raynare smiled menacingly.

"It was nothing personal, I'm afraid. My superiors just needed you dead, and I'm here to make sure that I fulfill that request!" Raising another spear of light above her, she threw it at Nobunaga, who just barely dodged the attack, part of her uniform torn apart by the attack. "Now stop dodging and accept your death already!"

"Never!" Issei and Nobunaga shouted. She jumped back, and tried to shoot another bullet, before another shout interrupted them. It sounded feminine and very irritated, apparently at the both of them. Nobunaga looked at the source of the familiar noise, nonchalantly slapping a spear of light away from her and another as she waited for the voice's owner to arrive.

Raynare waited a little bit herself, at the very least allowing the interruption to go on for her to lick her wounds and continue with the battle a little later. She walked back a little bit with a limp, her eye twitching stopped upon realizing who exactly arrived. The magical girl looked at the both of them with a serious expression, especially at Raynare, the aggressor, who shrunk back a little bit at the person who was definitely a helluva lot stronger than she was. She looked at Issei run at her to hug the Leviathan as if they were close siblings, who returned the gesture. Realizing that she just assaulted someone that Serafall Leviathan of all people considered loved was enough for her to consider the teeny tiny possibility that she was going to be dead soon.

Serafall for her part understood the situation immediately. Someone in the Fallen Angel organizations sensed Issei a few miles away and interpreted her as a threat, sending an agent to snuff her out as early as possible to prevent any potential threats from arising. If Issei was any less of a fighter then she knew that there would be no chance for survival. Despite this, she stood her ground and put the tired child behind her and looked menacingly at the fallen angel, threatening her to put her weapons down or else. Raynare, having very little chance of survival from such a high ranked devil, followed through, dropping her light spears as they turned into bright particles of light, and raised her arms in surrender. She fell to the ground by the sheer pressure pushing down on her.

Relaxing for a bit, she walked menacingly at the downed agent, aiming to ask her some important questions. She looked at Issei, who nodded, then glared back at Raynare. She began, "Who the hell sent you? I know you came after Issei to prevent a threat from potentially rising up in the future, and I'm pretty sure Azazel wouldn't bother trying assassinate someone to begin with, but that doesn't quite explain why you tried anyway."

Looking down on herself, Raynare scoffed, responding. "Azazel. Azazel sent me." She quickly shook her head upon seeing Serafall prepare an energy blast at her, basically asking her to wait for her to finish. "But he didn't give me the kill order. Someone else did, one of my superiors made sure to tell me to kill her before she could become a problem, and that's exactly what I'm here for."

Satisfied with her answer, Serafall put her wand down, glad to know that he didn't lose his mind just yet. Though honestly, an unprovoked attack on Devil territory? She was certain that the old church on the edge of the city was where they were hiding, but attacking in the park, during broad daylight? Was she nuts? Though to be fair, she did notice a little dullness to her eyes that went away when she surrendered, so maybe some compelling was done to keep her allegiance in this matter.

Sighing deeply, she glanced at Issei from her side, her uniform tattered and looking very worse for wear. A few magic tricks and healing should fix her and her clothes up before she could go home, but the distant look in her eyes was enough to tell her that Issei had a lot of things to handle mentally. At the very least, she could at least make herself look presentable before she could go home. She looked down at the fallen angel lying down on the dirt and grass, who shivered at the mean look in her eyes. Deciding that the assassin had very little uses at this point and almost murdering her ward at that, knowing even slightly hypnotized she simply acted on her instinct, she pointed a ball of energy at the downed opponent.

Raynare braced for impact, knowing that this would at least end her suffering in an instant. From here, Issei looked at both the fallen angel and Serafall, torn between allowing her to be killed and stopping Serafall from doing the dirty deed. Asking Nobunaga for her thoughts, she shrugged within their mindscape, telling her that either option was alright, but warning that allowing a threat to get away with their actions was enough of a risk to not do so, but figured that Issei was precious enough to go for her gut instinct anyway. Mind settled, she poked Serafall's thighs to call her attention, shaking her head in a negative, telling her to stop.

"Issei... why? She almost killed you..." She frowned at Issei's continued shaking, stopping her concentration on the death ball and instead focused on Issei. Issei looked up at her, and nodded, asked for permission to not be interrupted, and coughed into her fist before beginning to defend her argument.

"Ahem. First of all, magical girls shouldn't kill unarmed and weakened enemies. It was dishonourable and very mean, and very un-magical girl-like. Second of all, I'm just a kid, and no matter what happens to the corpse after they die, I will never forgot the first time I've seen a person turn from completely alive, to dead. And most importantly." She breathed in, putting her index finger on the side of her head, a vain attempt at looking cool turning hilariously cute with Issei's small size. "Shouldn't we let this Azazel guy you talked about dish out whatever punishment out there instead? I don't think there's a point in trying to serve our own kind of punishment when we could always let someone more familiar with her do it for us."

Processing the words with her eyes closed and two fingers on the temple of a pair of glasses that had materialized out of nowhere, she nodded. She removed the restraints on Raynare the moment she agreed with Issei, letting her go. Raynare stood up weakly, unsure how to process what had just happened, but at the very least was glad with the turn of events that let her live.

For a moment, it was like the tension in the clearing had expanded tenfold, the Fallen Angel still stuck in a state of fight or flight. Yet in another moment, the thickness had been cut through immediately by the sound of a cheery J-Pop ringtone coming from behind the Fallen Angel, and she immediately stuck her hand inside her rear to literally pull up a flip phone from her ass to respond to the call.

Flipping it open, she said a meek hello upon looking at the name on the call, Azazel. On the other hand of the cellphone was a normally chill Fallen Angel who was royally pissed at the subordinate who had added onto her orders without any permission, and was basically forcing her to come back to the base at once. Looking at at the Demon King and Leviathan, she sighed, and prepared to take off even while heavily injured.

She snapped her fingers and a magic spell was made. "This should reverse your school's memory of you, so they should remember what you were supposed to look like. Take care, I guess. And thank you." She flew up at the sky, but paused for a moment to clarify something. "And before you ask, my name is Raynare!" Grumbling a little bit about her recent failure, she pretty much resigned herself to whatever nutjob punishment Azazel had for her. She flew up once more despite her injuries, and was no longer in viewable distance.

Taking the moment to process what had just happened, Issei's eyes widened, realizing the implications that could occur. She was sure that they'd remember this school day as participated by 'Hyoudou Issei', but not as Nobunaga. So if they didn't know who he was then...

Looking at the kid who now had a very conflicted face, she chuckled, then took a letter from her purse. Whistling at her to call for her attention, she waved the acceptance letter in front of Issei who stared at it, uncertain. Knowing that she wouldn't quote understand the offer she was giving just yet, she explained.

"This is an acceptance letter to Kuoh Academy, Issei. I had one prepared in case you wanted to join my little sister in studying there. In case you didn't know, Kuoh Academy is generally controlled by both the Sitri and Gremory, so that we would have an easier time watching over you and the others." Tapping her wand on her side, she looked at Issei expectantly, waiting for the younger girl's response. "If you were worried that none of your classmates or teachers wouldn't recognize you anymore, then you could always enroll there and let us handle the paperwork."

Considering the standards and lines that Issei didn't want to cross, she added. "And for the record? We aren't going to change or alter their minds or memories of you, only enough of a suggestion that you've changed over the years, provided that they remember you in the future." She winked, hinting at something menacing yet sadistic.

Issei looked back and forth from Serafall's face and her hand, very conflicted on accepting it and plain disapproving it, having studied at the school for such a long time that suddenly going to another school was almost like immigrating to another country. But then she thought of the real meat of the question. Wasn't Kuoh Academy a girls only school? Did that mean she had to give up just about everything about her former life just so she could still have a semblance of a normal one? She considered the possibility of her simply transferring to another just outside of Kuoh, but that was such an expensive investment for her parents who already had problems managing their money at the moment anyway.

She opened her mouth, ready to say something, only to release a very half-hearted "Bwuh." She nervously looked side to side, until her eyes locked onto a familiar looking ash pile, apparently the stray devil corpse they beat up just the previous day. Staring at it for a few moments, it was as if she was asking for it to tell her something to say, but being a very dead spider devil, it didn't say anything at all. Sighing in resignation, she raised her head once more to actually say something this time around.

"Serafall... I have something to tell you..." Serafall perked at her response, nodding once to tell Issei that she was going to listen to her. Gulping some spit that was forming at the base of her throat, she set the foundations for something she should have told her the previous day. "I don't think I should go to Kuoh Academy..."

Serafall looked at her funny, tilting her head as if asking her why there would be such a problem considering that Kuoh was such a prestigious school. The quality of education was high, the teachers were very good and kind, and there were many advantages to simply being around there more often. She expressed this confusion by asking why.

"It's... How do I say this..." Issei rubbed the back of her neck, face leaning down but eyes still trying their best to keep eye contact on Serafall. Breathing in heavily, she continued. "I... I used to be a boy. Before I turned into this that is." She immediately looked up at Serafall with a serious expression that was slightly ruined by her puffy cheeks and teary eyes. "I am so sorry I didn't tell you the day I met you Miss Serafall, I just didn't think it was necessary to say anything at the time! But as it is, I don't think that letting someone who _used_ to be a guy partake in the activities that would normally associate with women, especially since I get to have an eyeful of pretty girls in the changing rooms!"

She bowed down at the magical girl, prepared for whatever dumb punishment she had prepared for him. "Please forgive me, Serafall, but I just didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings in the matter... Okay!?" Serafall made a passing glance at her, and smiled weakly, then put a hand on her face and the other on Issei's to lift them up for her to make eye contact.

"Ahem. Issei, I need to tell you something about me as well. Is that alright?" Issei nodded, and waited in anticipation. Serafall put her lips next to Issei's ears to make her listen better, and said the magic words. "I already knew."

Issei straightened her position in shock, her back leaning, mouth hanging open with one arm close to her face and the other extended. But it was only to Nobunaga's faint praise who considered that Serafall with all her potential connections probably knew about it herself. Humming to herself a little tune, Serafall continued, in a fairly elaborate pose in response to Issei's rather hammy reaction.

"Well, it was kind of obvious if you think about it Issei," Serafall chided, tapping her palms with a ruler that she found inside of Issei's discarded bag. "You speak with a fairly masculine tone, you used 'Boku' more than 'Watashi', even if you did sometimes use 'Washi' like an old man for whatever reason, a-and more importantly, you're wearing the boy's school uniform." Serafall looked at Issei who was still pretty solemn looking, and added, "Although I'm guessing that isn't quite the problem, is it?"

Issei could only shake her head, upon dropping the act and standing straight again. She pointed at her crotch with a deadpan face, and Serafall nodded. She understood the primary problem in full, although she did acknowledge that Issei pointed it out already a moment ago. She hummed for a moment, then snapped her fingers, realizing something important about that point. "Issei, don't you worry. We can handle the rest. I'm not sure about being able to turn the school coed in just a few months, but give me a little time and I'll see whatever kind of compromise I can think up."

At the very least, this was something she could agree to, but the question of what would happen to the few relations she actually had in her school was left unanswered. She figured that it was something that transfer students just had to get used to, but she was thankful that they were in pretty close proximity anyway so she could say hi anytime she wanted to. It was still a pretty good idea, but then, how the hell would she get away with transferring to another school this early in the semester? Or at least, anything that wouldn't draw attention to her in the first place.

"Ah, if you're worried about any problems about unwanted attention, that Fallen Angel you beat up did the work for you. Just after you left your school, everyone inside of the campus got knocked out by whatever dumb curse she had prepared, and now that they've woken up, some people got really spooked, so you shouldn't worry that people would want to get away from school that targeted like that. And to tell you how I learned that, look at this." She pulled out a flip phone that had a text message on it from the city government about a potential terrorist attack that targeted a small elementary school, and warning to people to stay safe and so on. The staff and students were safe, but got everyone really scared. There was also an addendum about classes being suspended, which she never really cared about but was pretty important to her classmates and her friends apparently.

It was honestly plenty of time to transfer schools, but that was still up in the air for now. She put her hands in her pockets, glad that Nobunaga gave her the free will to do whatever she felt best at any given moment, and thought on it more. Serafall coughed again, signalling to her that she was going to continue talking again.

"Odds are that the brass will attempt to hide the incident as a gas leak, but I have my doubts about an excuse that stupid being used myself." Smiling cheerfully, she went back to her offering pose that she showed to Issei just earlier, showing the letter to her as a gift, if anything. "So kid, what do you say?"

Issei made up her mind at this point, and smiled, taking the offered hand and beamed at the opportunity given to her. The two of them stood next to each other with smiles full of mirth until the moment had passed and it just became awkward. Adjusting her posture, she nodded, still smiling. They would be satisfied with just standing motionlessly like this, but Serafall felt the need to break the silence at this point.

"Oh yeah, we should really tell your parents about this don't we? I'm sure that telling them about the more fantastical parts of the world would be pretty important." Serafall looked to the side meekly. "And the fact that you're planning to transfer, too. ... That's going to be an awkward conversation, huh..." Miss Leviathan chuckles nervously as she thought of their reactions, ranging from the insane to the more mundane acceptance.

"I already have actualy. Some of the basic supernatural things, anyway. They were surprisingly accepting about the whole thing and my mother came to my defense on multiple occasions. As for the school related stuff, I think we could have you meet them in person." Nobunaga looked to the side for one moment, then added. "Though I'm pretty sure I already said that yesterday."

"Ah yes, fair enough."

Another silence.

Coughing into her fist, Issei spoke through the awkwardness. "Shouldn't I be going home now? Or, well, I'd love it if you came by for dinner to more easily explain my current situation, Miss Leviathan, if that's not too problematic...?"

"Ah, don't worry, I'd love to. I don't have much to work on at the very moment anyway, so lead the way!" She helped Issei pick up her junk, as they slowly left the clearing. They walked down the road to Issei's house, Issei taking a moment to steal a glance at the smudge on the floor before chuckling it off.

**This is really rough around the edges, I'm afraid. I had a few more ideas I wanted to work in, but it was either that the story felt too bloated, didn't flow properly or simply didn't fit the mood at all. And cheesy and sappy. As much as I like fluff, I'm pretty mediocore at it. And I didn't really intend for Issei's monologue to be so long, it just happened like that. Oh, and I'll be showing what happened to Raynare in a good 3 or 4 chapters from now. She has a pretty interesting role, I think. We'll see. (That was a lie. But I think that anyone wouldn't oppose Raynare in a sexy schoolgirl outfit, no?)**

**I know that an overextended pre-canon might be risky, but I don't think that the character arc showed here was sufficient to create the mindset that I want Issei to have in this story. ****I'll just be writing some anecdotes from ages 9 to 17 so that the transition from defenseless little kid to basically Issei's chivalrous parts plus a more justice focused Nobu would make more sense, and to establish a few more character relationships. I don't fucking know, I haven't written it yet.**

**For whatever reason, I've been visualizing Serafall as Cosmos in the Lostbelt!Sion instead of, you know, Serafall. She doesn't quite look like Sion, but I guess remembering the Atlas Uniform was easier than Serafall's mahou shoujou outfit for me. Oh well.**

**Side story**-

Issei wasn't really sure how to cook with the new oven that her parents had bought just a week ago, the day before she went back to school for exactly one day before she transferred to a new one. It was a convenient thing that it even existed in the first place, seeing how at first they pretty much lacked any consistent ways of reheating food, but even in her own honest opinion (that she shared with her parents) it seemed as if that simply microwaving their food was too lazy and inconsistent over recooking it instead. It was like that for years by now, but it seemed as if her parents had gone past their silly taboo and just get one anyway.

And that was the crux of the problem. Issei wanted to bake the potato she found in the fridge the day before, part of the groceries that her mother had bought last Friday that somehow didn't get bunched upwith the rest of their dinnertime meal. She hid it in a plastic bag behind some of the cans of beer that her dad would drink during stressful days in order to prevent either one of her parents from using it. It was on this Sunday morning that she would finally attempt to cook something on her own, and hopefully with Nobunaga's experience in the matter thanks to learning the necessity of feeding her army, she would make a really good baked potato.

I mean, it was only a baked potato. Poke a few holes, rub some olive oil and salt on it for a few minutes then plop it in the oven to cook for like an hour, then serve. Easy, right?

Wrong.

It didn't occur to Issei at first that the oven they used was not intended for long term usage at all. Or any heavy duty cooking that wasn't simple cookies or a day old frozen slice of pizza, because really, whose dumb idea was it to slap a ceramic plate not designed for long term heat on to the microwave for _OVER _an hour of cookiing? Or that the oven she used was not in fact designed for such a purpose at all, being a humble rudimentary microwave oven and not a rotisserie oven, or hell, the oven built into the kitchen stove in the first place, meant for cooking and baking.

In fact, the entire time she thought she had to constantly twist the knob in order to cook the food in the first place, immediately moving it back to the 30 minute counter upon listening to the telltale sound of a Ding! 3 straight times. She reasoned, essentially, that cooking the food for a full 2 hours would helpmake the potato grow softer and cripier over time, which was fair enough, but if it honestly came at the cost of the outer layer of her plate slowly peeled off because of the immense heat, or the burning plastic smell coming from the back of the microwave, or especially not the black smoke that came with said burning plastic smell... then honestly speaking, she shouldn't have bothered.

Which was where she was now, being scolded by her parents over her airheaded behavior upon learning of the new, and now broken microwave oven they just bought. They were thankful that it was replaceable by warranty, the delivery men noting just the next day that it wasn't the first time a little kid tried this. She looked at the ground with flushed cheeks, unable to hide her growing embarassment over the "Microwave incident", as the neighborhood had grown to call it over the years. Smoke had come out of the kitchen window from her end, and a neighbor fortunate enough to see through it saw her break the machine, spread the word to her gossipy elder sister, and allowed the ball to roll from then on.

In her defense, she actually didn't know that what she used was not intended for such a purpose in the first place, neither host or tenant actually. In Nobunaga's own words upon realizing their blunder, '_I didn't know that was going to happen, really. The grail would give me general knowledge over things in the modern day, but apparently cooking techniques is specific enough to not be included.'_

With all that said, she sat down alone on the dinner table and was allowed to eat her potato, no longer hot but still as tasty as ever. On the opposite end was the microwave she just broke, the plug poking on a slab of meat while it's rear sat on top of a stack of books. She sighed, taking her knife and cut through the thick skin of the potato to reveal the real prize inside. Thinking it over, Issei thought about how easily she was able to return to a semblance of normality after a week of insanity and losing her innocence. She held her spoon and shoveled a chunk, then poured some sour cream over it.

If this was to be her life from here on out, then it would do her well to prepare for the things to come. But as it was, she just needed to enjoy life, any problems that needed fixing would be fixed on their own when their time of relevancy had past. After all, she had enough of reflecting on her actions for now, so instead she'd do her best to come and go, she guessed. Like, every day since she got these powers and suddenly she had anxious self reflection after anxious self reflection. If she kept this up, she'd make even Sasuke Uchiha and Shadow the Hedgehog proud, a comparison that made her frown.

"Screw those guys, they don't know how to have fun!" She ranted at her plate, which did not respond. She sighed, but paused for a moment what she just heard. What did, respond, was a whir, a whistling sound normally associated with certain types of cooking equipment, and really big doohickeys she didn't know how to operate. She looked all around the empty room to find the source of the noise, until realization struck.

Snapping her head to the other side of the table, she witnessed the broken down microwave moving ever so slightly, its cable floating and the plug embedded deeply onto the meat. She wordlessly watched as the oven door snapped open, and the food was guided inside, and it snapped closed. A flash of light filled the room for a brief moment, and suddenly the food was gone. The machine waved its 'hand' at Issei, motioning her to start eating, and Issei could swear that its "head" moved for a moment there.

Her left eye twitched. Deciding that attempting to rationalize the absurdity of her situation even knowing the supernatural nature of the world, she nodded and put the soggy potato in her mouth. Satisfied with what she's made despite the technical issues that came with it, she smiled. At this point, she had completely accepted her circumstance, and began to ask the microwave oven to pass her the salt, who obliged.

**This premise is based off this one time I broke the Microwave oven because this one recipe I read online suggested that we 'preheat' the oven for like, what, 20 minutes? Anyway, what happened was that it locked down the systems, and broke the thing that made it heat up. The timer broke after that, so uh, it didn't work anymore.**

**Expect a similar schedule for the next chapters, though I'm not making any promises. I'm a busy busy boy. :P**

**The chapter name was going to have more relevance to the events happening here, but I moved that scene to a following chapter.**

(1) I just didn't want to say Gendo Pose, okay.

(2) Clocks aren't normally found in restrooms I'm pretty sure, but I didn't know how else to explain how Issei knew what time it is. I know I've used one to time how long it took my poop time that day. It was 45 minutes, and I still didn't get everything out right.


	7. Chapter 6 - Big Sis Leviathan

**A bit of a short one this time. I managed to make the events referenced here with a moderately smaller word count.**

**Make of that what you will. ;)**

**Quick update (09-24-19) to address level of dirtiness. Will not be the final chapter, obviously, just something I had time to fix.**

**09/25/2019. Oh god, I can't change how stiff the writing is! I really wanted to fix the lack of personality this chapter had, but I just can't. It's too bulky. It's too long. It's too chunky to change something already inherently flawed. Damn, it's stiff and thick. At least it's all grammatically correct, I guess…?**

**Side story added in, by the way!**

They arrived to Issei's house a little before the clock had hit 7. Issei was concerned that her parents would be worried about her current state, and rubbing a bruised arm on its side, she asked Serafall if she knew any healing spells or magic that she could use on her. Of course, being a magical girl wannabe, it wouldn't be right for her to at least have a few spells that could heal wounds. It was an honest question that she had whenever watching some of that old magical girl anime that had the main characters interact with the common people. Like, was it really a good idea to leave them behind, potentially bloodied and sick after getting ambushed by the monster of the week? She ordered her to sit down for a little bit and take off her shirt, revealing the pale and pinkish flesh underneath.

Sitting down on a chair her father left behind on the porch, she ripped open her school uniform top, expecting a lot of bleeding underneath, but gasped upon realizing that there was basically nothing there. In fact, besides the few scratches scattered all around her torso, it was almost as if she never got hurt at all. She asked Serafall-senpai to confirm this, then realized that being a half-servant was absolute bullshit when it came to regeneration. Even if it wasn't necessarily part of Nobunaga's skill set, it was usually enough for a servant to be in constant contact with their masters for her to heal so easily.

A few bruises and bleeding would have been expected, and there certainly were plenty of injuries underneath. But it wasn't as many as either of them expected, with the majority of the minor scratches and wounds having already been covered up and filled in, and the only laceration she could see was already well in the way of healing completely. In fact, ignoring how pale and weak she looked at the time, it was as if she had never gotten hurt at all. Serafall was deep in thought at the time, wondering about whatever part of Issei's skill set she already knew about could cause such a drastic shift in fortunes. The magical energies that covered the park that faithful day was already pooling in energy from both its user and the environment, and very efficiently filled in the injuries. Then she got slapped in the face, eyes blinking as she tried to process the current state of affairs.

She realized then and there that she was slowly approaching Issei, scaring her off because of her curiosity, and she was already defending her honor to the bitter end. Quite literally in fact, if the wand she used just about everywhere didn't know she was holding at the time was any indication. Quickly sputtering an apology, she approached Issei carefully this time around, cautiously approaching her body, then channeled some of her energies to hopefully heal the rest of the wounds by the next day. She didn't really intend for something like that to happen. It just did, and her obsession over this new pet project of her's kind of scared her to be quite frank.

The creepy look on Serafall spooked her more than a little bit, but she chose not to dwell on it for now. Despite the trust she had given to her so quickly, the grim reality was that there were no real alliances that she could trust giving away so easily. Well, at the very least she wasn't hurt as much anymore, despite still having an obvious limp, but she wouldn't blame either of her parents if they were worried about her after the Elementary school incident that had happened just an hour ago. In any case, she stood up and walked to the door, clicking on the doorbell and waited for mother or father to walk to the door and greet her inside. The lights to her home lit up just as they entered the porch, so obviously one of her parents just arrived home.

As it turned out, it was both of them that came. The lights in front of the door lit open, and both of them heard shuffling about behind it, and the squeaky sound of a pair of flip flops being put on. The wood floor she knew was behind the door creaked, and she heard a tap just after, and an eyeball peaked through the peephole that she knew for certain was her mother. She waved her hand through the glass, smiling weakly but showing that she was very much still alive. Beside her, Serafall happily followed with her own introduction to her parents, then chuckled to her own little dirty joke. The feminine eye widened, then it disappeared to blackness, as the wood floor quietly creaked as she could slightly hear the sounds of both of her parents' mumbling behind the door.

A click and a clack, the doorknob was unlocked, and the door slowly opened. Her mother, holding the hand of her father, both looking very worried, acknowledged that her presence was well and true. Her eyes teared up, then the older woman practically jumped towards her daughter, the sound of joy at her survival evident in her shaking voice. Her father joined in as well, but not before taking a quick glance at the large breasted and actual god forsaken magical girl who was standing just 2 feet away, and his suspicions of a shoujo fantasy were suddenly realized. Taking into account the typical hallmarks of a first mahou shoujo monster that they were pretty sure was taken down the previous day, he was ready to open his mouth to talk about it, but shut it tight when considering the current context. His eyes rolled, and chose not to dwell on it for now, reserving his snark for the dinner that they will eventually have.

A minute had passed, and her mother released her, tears staining her blouse from both mother and daughter. Afterwards, she finally took note of the stranger that their child had brought with her, the eccentric attire giving some amount of concern from the mother. She gave the (apparent) teenager a dirty look, and with an unreadable face, poked the younger girl on the shoulder to ask her about the guest that she came home with.

"Who is this girl you came home with, Issei? I'm guessing from the eccentric attire this girl is supposed to be a magical girl of some sort, but why did you feel the need to invite her to our home?" Putting her index finger on her chin, she thought of something that might explain the situation. "Aren't you a magical girl yourself? Does that mean that this… deluded high schooler is supposed to be your senpai?"

Issei looked at the closest thing she has to a friend in the supernatural half of the world- not like she knew anyone else besides that mean fallen angel- and gave her a questioning glance, if it was okay to go ahead with this assumption. Before she could answer, she turned her eyes from the devil to her mother once more, and began her response. "Yes," the girl muttered, "she kind of is…"

"But that's not the whole story, of course. I asked her to come with me so that she could give you and dad a crash course on the other stuff we don't quite know yet." She rubbed the backside of her neck as she had grown accustomed to for the last few days as she thought of anything else to say. "I don't necessarily have the right to give you the introductions myself, though. Miss Leviathan does. … You can go ahead, Serafall-san." She scuttled away for a bit, to give her mother and Serafall some room.

Serafall watched the silly exchange with a smile of her own, the interaction reminding her of the time when she had to awkwardly explain to her parents about the whole magical girl gimmick she went ahead with. Issei's signal to let her speak brought her back to sobriety, which was enough to be caught slightly off guard and stumble a bit. She caught herself just before she could slam her face on the tiled walkway, and immediately decided that going with the ridiculous entrance she used just the day before would not be good first impression to her would be ward's parents.

Serious first impression it is, then. She hadn't done one in a while, but Sona-chan would be a good enough inspiration for this, but she couldn't possibly attempt to make an introduction without adding in at least a little bit of her personality into the mix, right? Coughing into her fist, she gave the parents a sincere smile before she began.

"Good evening, Mister and Missus Hyoudou. My friend, your daughter Issei Hyoudou, had a bit of trouble today and yesterday. I came to her assistance when she needed some help with taking down a demon yesterday and with another one just this afternoon. I was also responsible for helping take care of the school she goes to after they were all knocked out." She let her words sink in for a few moments to gather her thoughts, to think about her next move. … For whatever reason she went a hundred percent Sona despite already making her decision. She really had to thank centuries worth of etiquette classes for that, and the accidental shift in tone was enough for the girl's parents to change their opinion of her if the subtle change in posture was any indication. They were stiff necked and concerned at first -probably worried that she was making a bad impression-, but now it seemed like they were looking at her with some respect for once. Honestly...

Oh well, seems like she had to go full steam ahead with this ladylike and demure attitude. She supposed that if she acted any stranger from this point forwards, they would most likely chalk it up to her feeling a bit more casual at the time like she didn't feel the need to go all formal anymore. Which was fine for her, she could be dead serious if she needed to, she just didn't feel the need to most of the time because it didn't fit in with her magical girl philosophy. Pointedly ignoring the deadpan stare that Issei was giving her, who was already mildly familiar with her antics if the few games they did to pass the time was any indication, she continued with her introduction tapping her chest with her fist.

"My name is Serafall Leviathan, ma'am. I'm a magical girl, who for all intents and purposes from this day forwards, indeed her senpai. It's really nice to meet you after all this time." She bowed, still ignoring the blank look on Issei's face. "I'd love to discuss about this further, but I think that the rest of the explanation is best kept inside, where no one else could hear us. It felt best that we kept most of this private after all."

Understanding the older girl's intentions, the mother nodded, and closed gate behind them. She followed after her husband who went back in first, and gestured for the both of them to follow after. Before they did however, Issei couldn't hesitate to ask. "Was she always capable of appearing mature?" Realizing how mean the question sounded, Issei put her hands to her face, muttering a 'sorry' and 'you know what I mean' to the older girl. Serafall smiled, rubbing her palm on the grade schooler's long and silky hair, not at all offended and understanding exactly what she meant.

"Don't sweat about the little things, Issei. I know what you mean by that. Though to answer your question… Hmm." She thought of the serious younger sister trope, which suited their situation very well. "Well, best I could describe it is that my little sister was my main inspiration. She's very mature for her age, you know, and the situation called for something serious for once. Then I thought to myself, why not her? She's a sweet girl, believe me, and she was always a bit better at the formal stuff than I ever did. Hehe." Issei didn't really know what it felt like herself, but somehow she felt like agreeing, laughing a little bit herself.

They were satisfied just sitting down and basking in the moonlight, but the sound of her father shouting at the still open door startled them both, realizing that they might've used up a little too much time outside. Startled, she quickly stood up and took Issei's hand to lift her up, and they walked inside the household. They nodded off her father who was standing next to the door after calling for them, sighing with a palm on his face.

They all sat down together on the dinner table, sans Issei and Serafall, her mother setting down plates for both the ragged girl and her companion. Issei went up the stairs in order to swap over to something that seemed a bit more appropriate, as well as dumping her now ruined school uniform for her mother to either scrap or mend. She did leave the letter but chose to let Serafall explain it once she went back down. Which wouldn't take too long, honestly, but a minute was plenty enough time for a brief interaction.

Serafall didn't necessarily want any food served for her, but both Issei and her mother insisted that she at least accept their hospitality. Sitting down alone without Issei was pressure enough that she shrunk a little bit to herself when seeing the blank stares of her friend's parents. She sipped a little bit of the fruit juice from her cup, and spread her legs a bit more, in an effort to feel a bit more at home. It didn't do that much, but it was a good effort.

She already knew that they both knew that there were ghosts and goblins out there running about if their indifference towards the girl's metamorphosis was any indication, so at the very least she didn't need to explain all that much. The most she could do then was telling much of the same stuff that she lectured Issei about the previous day at the park, and the warnings that she would probably tack in so that they didn't do anything that would risk any of their lives, God (ouch) forbid.

A few more seconds in, and the father decided to break the silence. Gorou Hyoudou, patriarch, considered the possible relevance of the girl's position in the supernatural world, or magical girl team, and thought to ask her something basic to begin with. Tapping on the table to call both his wife and the stranger's attention, he asked.

"How did you and Issei meet, anyway?" This, at the very least, didn't need reason to explain the motives. The concern was well appreciated from the responding party, who considered it briefly.

'_Ah,_' Serafall thought to herself, '_this I can answer._' Taking a moment to think up some way to explain it as briefly as possible, she explained. "I found your daughter when she was poking on a monster's corpse in the park. I befriended her, gave her a few tips about life in the otherside of the world, and let her be. The only reason I was able to meet with her again today was because she managed to trip the wards that I left behind in that clearing, which was a good call because otherwise she would have been in much worse shape than she is now."

Putting a finger to her lips, she added inquisitively. "And before you ask, I already knew that Issei-kun used to be a guy. I found out myself when I thought about her posture and overall behavior, but yesterday I just thought she was a very rebellious and tomboyish type of girl. Kind of like me when I was around that age." A light chuckle escaped her mouth, and she went back to staring at her so far uneaten plate. Father nodded, satisfied with her answer.

The silence stayed for a while longer, a few minutes to be exact, up until the sound of steps tapping on the stairs was heard. Walking down them and seen by all was Issei Hyoudou, freshly bathed and in a new change of clothes. She was holding onto two things, the blade inherited from Oda Nobunaga, and the hat she had also grown attached to. She set the sword on a nearby desk, put the hat on, and sat down on the chair opposite her parents and next to her senior, and nodded them down.

By this point, they've already understood the stakes. There was no real need to extend their explanation any more than what they absolutely needed to know. Serafall did her best to run down all of the basics of the supernatural for them, the factions, the monsters, just about the basic idea. The thought of the possibility of another house invader coming into their rather defenseless home scared them both, but they had some precautions prepared.

At the very least, anyone gutsy enough to attempt to attack their home after the thorough ass kicking delivered to the first idiotic stray devil probably deserved to die anyway. The real problem came to the parents, who had neither the physical ability to suplex a demon, choke them to death, rip their limbs off, suffocate them, poke them with a particularly pointy-but-technically-blunt stick… You get the idea.

But, considering that they were well within the territory of devils, it wouldn't have taken long to just plant a few wards for any prospective home invaders to trip on. This was a simple enough spell that it didn't take long for Issei to learn from Serafall, who magicked a spell book from out of nowhere and taught her what to do. And so, she pointed out places that they would be most effective in and gave her the instructions to let her know when or how they were tripped. At the very least, neither of them wanted anymore demonic energies that could potentially attract exorcists or particularly idiotic stray devils into the home anyway, which was why Serafall chose not to do it herself.

Breathing deeply, Issei stood up and stretched herself, finally done with the last ward that she planted near to the gate. She walked inside to the kitchen, and heard them talk about her potential transfer to Kuoh Academy, a school that wouldn't have come up in either of her parents' minds until the very convenient timing of the talks of its eventual transformation to a co-ed school. The explanation that Serafall had connections inside of the school that would allow Issei to essentially enter it in a completely blank slate with only the most minute of connections to her former school was enough to alleviate most of their concerns.

The calm mood dipped slightly when they brought up the question of the practicality of simply letting her dress up as a boy for school purposes anyway. They might have done just that the entire day, but the simple fact was that allowing Issei to enter school as she was in a school that just barely became coed and still had an overwhelming population of girls was risky to say the least, so even if the families in charge of the school had enough of an iron grip to quell the more creative of rumors, there would still be a massive risk of something leaking out. The fact that Issei was a female through and through though, would still be noticed by most of the girls, and some things would still come up no matter how much they try to hide them.

The question came up once more. Should they still go ahead with it? The fact was they still needed Issei's input towards the final decision as it concerned her entirely. No matter how practical of a decision simply teaching her life as a girl from that point forwards, it didn't really feel right to make such an important choice for her. Because she was leaning on the side while watching it happen before her eyes, Serafall noticed her and called for her to come over, but before she knew it, she ran away.

She didn't run that far, to be honest, just a little bit into the middle of the road outside their house, but it was still quick enough to catch both of them off guard. Although her mother vouched to come over instead, Serafall ran much faster than either of the parents, who just barely exited the house as she would already be in the middle of the street patting Issei's back. She tried to call for her attention, but from what she could tell, it was as if she wasn't there at all.

Unsatisfied, Serafall kneeled down and held the younger girl's face between her hands to Issei's shock and irritation. She examined Issei's face, the bruises having already cleaned and healed for the most part, leaving only a few scabs, and decided that at that moment what she needed the most was a hug. Which was true enough, and so she embraced her at that very instant, giving her a much-needed place to lean on since her mother was already inside the home. She rubbed the girl's back to make her relax, and so whispered comforting words to her ear.

"It's going to be okay, Issei. I'm right here with you." Looking to the side, Issei didn't necessarily respond, and was actually a little miffed because of the continuous stream of sappy hug scenes for the last few days, but at the very least she appreciated the sentiment. She probably wouldn't have been capable of handling the strain on her heart if they didn't happen so constantly, anyway. They stayed put for a few moments, and a heavy load on her shoulders felt like they simply floated away at that point in time.

Issei knew what she was preparing to ask, the question that eluded her despite getting used to the idea herself. She made up her mind, sure, but something inside told her that going ahead with either would never have satisfied her at the end of the day. She knew deep inside that she was still the same Hyoudou Issei, but Nobunaga's influence told her that she was a girl just as much. Those mixed feelings brought a sardonic chuckle to her lips, and gave her the courage to finally speak.

"You know I… I don't really know if this was going to be the best decision to begin with but… Something's telling me to go ahead with dressing up in the boy's uniform whenever I need to, then living life as either if I ever need to, then maybe just tell everyone a-at school the truth if I felt ready…" She gulped, then breathed in heavily. "I mean… It isn't much but then I could live life as I have for most of my life then swap over to the other side if I felt more in touch with myself… I don't know…" She sighed.

"Basically, I'm just trying to figure out a solution myself. None of them make a lick of sense, but I'm trying to find a way. Either way." Looking expectantly to Serafall who had stopped hugging her, began sitting down on the concrete and had her hand on her face with a deep look. And nodded.

"I guess that could work out. Once you decide on 'coming out'," She shuddered at the unfortunate wording, then continued. "I'll make your intentions clear as day when you do, and make sure that no one tried anything funny, okay? You'll be fine, you can still play boy for as long as you want or need, but just give me a call if you need me for that or anything else." She nods. "Okay?"

They come back inside for them to finish the last pieces of paperwork before they could go ahead with enrollment, and Issei would be ready to go. A few dates were listed down to get the uniforms going from Elementary through College, both sexes, just in case. The designs were to be preliminary, and fitted as time went on. Most of the payments would be covered by Serafall and her family, one part her own generosity, the other mostly satisfied at gaining a potentially powerful ally as a result. They understood that much, and pretty much left it at that.

With the fallout of the sudden passing out of the entire school body who had been left behind after classes bringing most of the city going into panic, it was necessary for them to suspend classes for at the very least a week, which was more than enough time to transfer to schools and get used to her body. It would be depressing for Issei to need to essentially abandon her original lifestyle just to keep up the masquerade, but as much as she wanted to stay, it would be too unrealistic to believe that everyone would believe her ruse this time around. They had neither the connections or cunning to let her do it at first anyway, and the only reason she got away with dressing up in the boy's uniform and act as if nothing has changed was a stroke of luck that brought an assassin Fallen Angel so conveniently weaving a mind control spell to the entire school. Someone who had aimed to cut her head when no one would care or see the action.

It was either take the risk again and fail, take the risk but change their memories to think that she always looked like that (something that angered her sense of honour), or just up and leave for another school. The option always came up to their minds, but they wanted to avoid anything that could potentially damage the average joe's mind as it was. So, once more, they went with the last option. At the very least, they had more than enough time to acclimate to the new surroundings, and with the next few days they would capable of touring around the school, train her synchronization with Nobunaga a bit more, and if Serafall were correct, meet a certain someone that she needed to meet. For the future, she'll be very important to her interests at school at least.

They were standing outside while the moon was up in the sky, bright and glowing. The time was coming close to midnight already, and Serafall was just about ready to leave the home. Issei was the only person watching her off, and as she prepared to leave the Hyoudou household, she tapped her back. She turned around, to see Issei hold a sheet of paper between her hands. It read, "_Can you be my big sister, too?_" in cute little english.

Of course, it wasn't something that Issei wanted to show consciously. A good part of the motivation came from Nobunaga who saw the opportunity for them to get a bit closer, listening in to their conversation and thinking to herself that Issei needed someone else to take the reins from time to time. Although one could say that she was forced to do it, Nobunaga just goaded the feelings she felt deep inside of her heart to arise, so one could say this was exactly what she wanted. It didn't reflect as much in her face, though, a deep blush covering her entire face as she shivered, but any amount of embarrassment flew away the moment a hand patted on her hat, rubbing the hair underneath.

The action smudged the base just enough to cave it in slightly, and very quickly she held the hat on her hands to fix it, dropping the piece of paper. The piece of paper was caught by Serafall, who, despite her best efforts, Issei was unable to catch. Pushing Issei away at arm's length with one hand and using levitation magic to keep it in place, she wrote something down on the empty side of the piece of paper. Nodding once to herself, she released the grip to let Issei trip on herself, caught her then handed the piece of paper to her.

Picking herself up, she gave Serafall a quick glare at her smug face, then looked at the scrap of paper on her hand. Flipping it over, she saw what was written. "_I can do just that, little sis!_" She turned her gaze upwards, and watched as Serafall teleported away, her hands waving Issei away. Issei followed after, doing her best to wave her hand as rapidly as possible in order to show her gratitude just before she would be gone for the foreseeable future. The silly look on her face after that was more than enough for her to be satisfied.

Midnight was just about to approach when she began to feel sleepy, but it wasn't out of tiredness or fear for the future, but because she was trying her hardest to do something really cool. Issei saw in a lot of anime and manga that the main character materialized their battle clothing out of nowhere. She asked for Nobunaga's help in the matter, so she sat down on her bed with her uniform, hat, and sword on the other end of the room. She was ready to recreate that awesome sword wielding move she did the day before, only enhanced this time around by making it the whole set.

Just as she was about to make some progress with her hat, however, she fell asleep instantly, limping down into a mess on the floor. She fell to the floor unconscious, already in a deep sleep, the stresses of the day already the least of her problems. This was responded to with exasperation by Nobunaga, who didn't expect her to be that tired at the time. Thinking back on it, however, it was kind of her fault for doing the stress training late at night, when she was very tired and her eyes shut closed. She could vouch for the last one happening a lot herself, if an old narcoleptic gyaru friend of her was any indication.

Stifling a yawn, she wondered to herself if she could kill a home invader with her sheer presence this time around. That would be a pleasant surprise if was true.

* * *

_12 hours later..._

Issei Hyoudou practiced in the big empty clearing where she first met Serafall Leviathan. She fashioned some training dummies by gathering up some grass and sticks that she found scattered all around the forest. Aiming at one of the dummies with her gun, she fired, annihilating most of the poor strawman in an instant.

She was getting used to the thought of being Nobunaga's successor now, and the thought of being a superpowered being who could hard counter _other_ supernatural beings made her feel very special. It wasn't as if she had totally moved on from it now, but Nobunaga was right. She had to get used to the thought of her life changing forever from that moment forwards, because if she didn't, what would her life be but pointless?

It wasn't something she was proud having to do, honestly, casting away most of her former life for good, but there were no alternatives. When she woke up that morning feeling very detached and hungover, her depression settled in once more when she realized the discrepancies, and all she did was pull her knees close to her face and sat down on the bed on a fetal position, not quite crying but very obviously angsty. It was enough for Nobunaga to pitch once more, and she was actually furious at her for once. She could still remember what she told her that time…

"_What the hell are you doing!? You're just sitting down, acting like the world was going to end and you couldn't do anything about it. Well, let me tell you something, Issei Hyoudou, but it isn't! You still have your destiny grasped by your hands, you can still have a future! I know life is going to be very different from this point forwards, but that doesn't mean you should just give up, right? Give me an answer!" _

_Issei didn't have one to begin with, but she already knew what it was. The image of Nobunaga standing before her was material enough for her to just turn away from her problems, by twisting her to face the window. Before said image attempted to pull her away, she nodded, to make it quite clear to Nobunaga that she was actually listening._

_Nobunaga sighed, disappointment stretched thin from her voice. "Issei… I want to help you. I've tried to help you multiple times for the past few days and you always pulled through… What makes this particular day different? Was it because you were given the change your mind again? Did you-, oh forget it." She lifted her head to face the ceiling, eyes closed and contemplating her options. She continued._

_"Issei… I'll make this quite clear… You're my retainer. My friend. One of the people I trust enough to give my life for, and that's how much I trust you so far to give my life for you. I don't want you to hurt yourself anymore for something you had absolutely no control over… okay?" Issei nodded. "Okay." _

_Nobunaga willed herself to control her host once more, and Issei's body picked up, walking to the closet and changing into Nobunaga's military wear. Before Issei could protest, Nobunaga's voice piped in. "I need you to go to the clearing that Serafall friend of yours met you in, and I'll be able to teach you most of what you need to know. I won't be able to teach you everything I know in just a day, so only a good part of it would suffice. You can vent your frustrations there and I think I could finally teach you a thing or two about my body. Is that a deal?" The loosening of her body muscles was enough response for her to understand that she agreed with the terms. "Good."_

_They walked to the window and jumped out, doing their best to avoid any onlookers. The first call was to teach her a thing or two about basic combat. Namely, her sword and guns. Landing on a pile, Nobunaga ordered Issei to build a few dozen training dummies for her to play with as basic menial training, a warm up exercise, and the basics for her training. Upon being given direct control of her body after being given her instructions, she had to make sure she didn't accidentally fall into a pile of dog shit on the ground below her. Sighing, she looked at the surprisingly thick patches of grass on the field that she could work with, and groaned upon thinking about the work that needed to be done._

She prepared to fire another salvo and end its short life once and for all, but paused. She could sense someone, and if she wasn't mistaken, she also a heard a very screechy voice coming from behind her. It was calling for her, saying her name somehow? Putting her gun down, she looked behind to look at the uninvited guest. She recognized that black hair and demeanor everywhere, it had to be Serafall! But when the light started shining on her silhouette, she put her hand down before she could accidentally misname someone who clearly wasn't the person they were referring to.

First thing on the line, her age. She looked much younger than Serafall despite having most of the general physique. Another, she was much shorter than her, almost looking like a loli mini-Serafall if she felt like calling their physical resemblances into attention. And lastly, she wasn't wearing that ridiculous looking magical girl outfit that Serafall was wearing just a day ago, noting mentally that she would probably be the kind of person to possess multiple copies of their favored attire just because. As it happens, she was wearing the girl's elementary school uniform of Kuoh Academy.

Clearly, this was someone related to Serafall, but what kind of relation was the question in her mind. The little sister she mentioned just yesterday, perhaps? A cousin? Maybe a niece? When she considered her viable options, the possibility of the seemingly younger girl being a clone of sorts to fill in her duties was actually considered seriously, although her mind soberly took down all of the fantastic elements that filled in her imagination, to consider only the first option as the viable options.

But she still didn't know who exactly the stranger was to Serafall, or what her purpose seeking her out was. The guns disappeared when the guest raised her hands in surrender, showing clearly that she wasn't seeking to be a threat. She asked her, "Who are you?" The stranger smirked, which wasn't a good sign.

The stranger raised her arm to the sky and a wand that looked very similar to Serafall's appeared on her hand. She crossed her arms and began to float 4 inches above the ground as baby blue light rays covered her every being like ribbons, before it all converged into one big ball of blue. A very elaborate magical girl transformation sequence actually happened inside of it, like her clothes morphing into the sailor outfit and making her somehow look a good deal more frilly, but Issei didn't see shit because everything important happened inside of that big ball.

The transformation over, and the ball slowly disappeared, dropping the girl inside of it. She landed on her two feet, and on Issei's end her appearance could finally be described. It was basically a mini version of Serafall's own magical girl costume, except blue and surprisingly frillier. She stood up, and gave her own rendition of a "Give me your hearts!" pose.

The absurdity of the situation gave Isse pausei, as she was already in a pretty sour mood and the eccentric stranger's appearance threw her off. Just as she was about to respond, she was cut off, and the magical girl "humph"ed at her, with a typical tsundere behavior. The stranger opened her mouth. "Good question, young citizen! I am the vengeance that seeps through the night, I AM the night! –or was it something like that I'm not so sure- er, um. *cough*"

The newly minted magical girl crouched down to take a moment to do some magic tricks behind her back, and if what she was seeing was correct, it was a bunch of flashing lights. Seemingly, not every magical girl had the high budget to make things appear so fantastical. She had apparently just realized that Issei was looking at her, and very swiftly waved her away as if to tell her to pretend that she wasn't adjusting her performance.

She stood up once more, and continued as if nothing had happened. To Issei's credit, she just chose to not remark on it. It wasn't worth it.

"I, am Sona Sitri, magical girl in training under my elder sister, Magical Levia-tan! And you, Issei Hyoudou are… Wait… wait, no-!" Sona waved her wand to emphasize the effect just after saying her sister's name. Although the sparklers activated, they set off in the wrong direction. In fact, it sparked just below her, with just enough firepower to launch her a few meters away just before where Issei was standing.

Issei watched it all happen stoically, not having a particular emotion to show. She was actually pretty disappointed by what had just happened. Walking forwards, she picked up a stick on the floor then crouched down, poking the unconscious Sitri sister with it in a half-assed effort to wake her up.

**There used to be two larger paragraphs here, but I took them out.**

**I'm not so sure how devils age myself, but I guess that this would do, no? Just think of loli Sona's behavior here as a side effect of children being very easily influenced. She'll grow out of this chuuni stage of her life, don't worry. They'll be hitting middle school very soon. **

**This chapter _still_ needs some extra cleaning up to do, but I'm satisfied for now.**

**I was going to slap the last scene in the next chapter, but I decided to add it in to quicken the pace after the concerns from some of the reviewers regarding the pace. This way, I didn't have to pad out the first few scenes in chapter 7. Also sets the mood pretty good, I think.**

**The side story might be a bit fragmented because I betted 20 Pesos and more with a few rounds of Pokken. I kicked their asses, by the way, and got 30 more in profit. My classmates now fear my Gardevoir. Pretty sweet. (Oh hi, I fixed this as well. In hindsight, if I got into Tekken in October instead, this would've felt more personal. But eh, seems like one for the Omakes again.)**

It was a dark and stormy night… Though technically it wasn't rain, rather it was snow. It was close to midnight, and the snowstorm outside was enough to cut off mobile phone connections but absolutely nothing else. Because no one was outside, it was for all intents and purposes a normal winter evening. Only one person of note was awake in this God forsaken hour, a teenage girl with long hair conspicuously wearing an overtly ornate and awesome commissar's cap, staring straight into the VCR television screen with her hands on a controller. Well, two controllers. It was a long story.

The date was the 27th of December, 2 days after Christmas day and just long enough for young Issei Hyoudou, formerly of the male sex and now acclimated to her current physical appearance, to open the presents she had obtained from her closest of friends. Although, the curious thing was, she technically shouldn't have been given the most of the gifts in the first place, the celebration of the Savior's birth was not at all in the scheduled holidays that a devil should be celebrating. Yes, for most of young Issei Hyoudou's life, the _new_ Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, self-proclaimed chuunibyou who actually has the powers they claim to have mind you, and closeted pervert of the highest level, the grand majority of friends she had made over the years consisted of devils, yokai and even a fallen angel.

She hoped the last part was true, though, considering that said bitchy Fallen Angel went out of her way to kill her after going out of her way to ignore her orders. She hasn't quite made progress in making a close friend from the other end of the morality scale, but she was trying. They kept attacking her unprovoked anyway, so any of those self-proclaimed exorcists that tried to kill her in the name of God despite being abandoned by him long ago because of how brutal and psychotic they were, sorta deserved the punishment of attempted assassination to her and her friends over and over again.

If what her parents' suggestions were of any merit, there was good reason to believe that the extremely high libido that she had to consciously suppress was practically inherited. According to the stories that her father would tell her when she felt particularly curious, her grandfather was a really big pervert. And didn't divulge any further, as if that was all she needed to know, but the judging look on her mother's face while looking at her father while he told her about the story gave her all the information she needed to know.

But I digress, I'm already spoiling most of my future plot points. The point of discussion was that she had obtained quite a few Christmas presents, from people both secular and religious, all of which she appreciated from the deepest corners of her heart. One particular present she received was a game console, a PlayStation 3 fresh out of the box, with a whole bunch of used video game discs that came along inside the box, including some PS1 and PS2 releases. Although in her own honest opinion it wasn't much of a good idea to buy a game console this late in the console generation, she still appreciated the thought behind it. When she asked Serafall about her motivations about giving a whole box full of video games and game console, she just laughed it off.

Serafall could've given a very long-winded tirade of how the whole spiel about a single decrepit old man could possibly know who was "good" or "bad", or how the instructions to be nice could be (deliberately) misinterpreted by the unscrupulous and wicked, but she didn't feel like telling her and didn't have much time to stay anyway. She didn't need to come by directly this time around, all that made her know that it was Serafall was how she felt the familiar mana signature popping into the house and back. And she also left a(nother!) magical girl wand for her to use for whatever reason.

She took it out, installed it using the instructions on the box to her VCR, then went ahead to set it up. She made a deliberate choice to avoid putting it in the first floor where there would be conflicts on who would be using the TV at the time, top 10 student or not, but that was fine to her. Besides, there wasn't as much furniture cluttering her bedroom compared to the lounge. She fell asleep, ready to end the day and continue setting it up the next day.

Some software updates and game updates, connecting it to the internet and so on. Her parents trusted her enough to have a personal bank account, and thanks to Nobunaga's cunning and business savviness, she had more than enough money to pay for her hobbies. She plopped in disc after disc, downloading updates and DLC, then she was ready to hit the hay was once again. She wasn't in a particularly gamey mood at the time, as she was simply ready to go to sleep.

But her motivations changed just after arriving in Freeside in her copy of New Vegas, the post-apocalyptic western political thriller RPG piquing both Nobunaga and Issei's minds with intrigue, the former because she was curious about the political climate of such an unstable region, and the latter because she just appreciated the writing. Just as she was ready to take it out of the console, a game disc found it the most convenient time to fall off her shelf, and on the brink of time caught it with her two hands.

Examining it, she realized that it was a fighting game. To be exact, it was an anime fighting game. Not one she was particularly familiar with, but the Rock and Roll theme of the game was what attracted it to Nobunaga. The amazing soundtrack was mostly a plus to people who also loved its deep gameplay and art style, but who was to say that you couldn't appreciate all of them at the same time? Yes, Guilty Gear was a cult classic through and through, and even though she didn't have the newest revision in her PC copy, it was clear as day to her that the version she was holding was exactly what she needed.

Breathing heavily, and cheering on the inside that she didn't have to go out of her way to buy a newer version of the game at the game store, she was just about to put it and New Vegas back into her shelf when she felt numb. Her hands moved to take the copy of the WRPG inside of the case and into the shelf, then they opened up the disc case of Guilty Gear and plopped the blu ray into the console. Her hands opened the box for the console, pulled another DualShock controller, and Issei knew exactly what was happening.

Her mind created the image for her. She was standing on one end of an arena, in full garb as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. On the other, it was Oda Nobunaga herself, appearing far older and truly fitting her title as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. A true Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, if her title as seen on the conveniently placed scoreboards was any indication. Her hair was a burning red, she was wearing a skintight outfit, and looked much, much more intimidating. She also looked incredibly hot _and_ cool at the same time, so her inner thighs started getting a little itchy. But this isn't that kind of story, and she was more interested in potentially punishing Nobunaga for her antics anyway, so she elected to ignore it.

"_Oh? You're challenging me? Instead of making a valiant effort to resist my control, you accept the challenge I had given to you?_"

"_I can't beat the shit out of you (for once) if I didn't try._"

"_Oh ho! Then come as close as you like._"

The stage was set. They approached their posts menacingly, one wearing flamboyant attire, and the other wearing a schoo- um, military uniform with a very cool hat. They picked up their tools, and chose their champions. The outer edges of the stadium filled with an overwhelming hellfire, and a holographic screen popped up before them. Nobunaga's history with the game went beyond life and death, as she had played it in the past within her own little section of the Throne of Heroes with Okita Souji and her beloved niece.

Despite the knowledge of such prior experience, Nobunaga didn't scare young Issei. She was battle hardened by her own experience playing with her father, and especially Shidou, who, despite having absolutely no knowledge of deep fighting games, kicked her ass by button mashing Eddie's HS neutrals, and accidentally hitting every single one of her IKs just moments after teaching him about them. These experiences haunted Issei, forcing her to git good. To actually learn how to play one of the hardest video games in the planet. As far as Issei could tell? She could take it, all the way.

On each of their screens, the profile of their chosen heroes flashed a moment after each other. They were the main characters of the series, Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske. How appropriate. They allowed the characters' respective intro animation progress, after which they both began to fight.

With only one hand, they masterfully countered each other's attacks-

_With only one hand, each half of the girl's body somehow controlled their respective controllers despite the difficulty in maneuvering it with only one limb._

-with every move calculated and intended in every way possible-

_She actually felt like she was on the ropes at every moment, every attempt to push forward forced her to go on the defensive because Nobunaga's time void's worth of experience in her room. That she still managed to survive all the way to the reset (arbitrarily added in by a dragon she didn't necessarily imagine…?) was amazing on its own, but her trust in Ky Kiske's ability to have a tool for every situation was probably the primary reason she was able to survive the onslaught of brimstone and cigarette lighter fueled flame. _

_She was also experiencing some level of PTSD from Shidou's tryhard expedition almost a decade ago, but that part wasn't important. Hopefully._

_The question of how the hell she was capable of doing all of that without breaking her arm would go unsaid, but it probably had something to do with her Demon King skill. It was actually starting to hurt._

-and it was almost as if there was no way for either of them to win conclusively, until the very last set, Issei Hyoudou made a comeback, successfully taking all of Nobu's sets and winning their impromptu duel that very evening.

_She actually won by doing that extremely cheesy tactic they use to kill the cheap Gold Sol in mission number a hundred. You know, dash-slash to charge fireball, then crouch-dust okizeme when you needed them down. Something like that, the author was 10 years old when they had done the deed so they don't remember._

Despite the underhanded tactic used in finally winning the game, Nobunaga did not at all feel offended by the strategy used by her protégé. In fact, she was almost flattered, noting that it was much better that they used the most out of their advantages instead of avoiding them like a plague because of a misguided attempt at 'honour'. In her own words, "_In a sword versus gun fight, which would you rather choose? That was a trick question; you should always immediately shoot the idiot bringing a sword to a gun fight, especially when they do some bullcrap katas before they start charging at you._"

She didn't necessarily understand the relevance of her wisdom in the current situation, but she wouldn't turn down advice just because she didn't agree with its usage within context. The stadium filled in with magma that hardened immediately, turning into an obsidian bridge that allowed her to meet with Nobunaga in person. She left the cubicle that she fought against Nobunaga in, and walked all the way to the center to talk to the taller girl. She dashed into a sprint, running towards her teacher to thank her for the amazing evening.

… Before tripping on a rock, and falling straight into the embrace of Demon King the Older. Her eyes were tightly shut, reeling slightly in pain until the sound of Oda Nobunaga moaning in pan and a poke to her arse made her open her eyes. Issei Hyoudou very conveniently had her arms stretched forwards when she fell forwards, allowing them to invite themselves to the equally sweet touch of Oda Nobunaga's breasts. Neither of them wanted to say a word. A deafening silence caused by the awkwardness of their current position.

Issei really, really wanted to say sorry to Nobu for her clumsiness, but was left to leave her mouth open when it seemed as if Nobunaga didn't necessarily disapprove of her forwardness. Nobu's face was looking to her side, her face harboring a blush that seemed a much deeper shade of red than the one she was wearing already. Nobunaga was mouthing something important it seemed, to which Issei could only ask.

"What?"

Before either she could respond, however, the world vanished in an instant. She was in her bedroom, sitting dangerously close to the TV and both controllers were on the floor. On her peripheral vision she could see her mother pointing at her, and also shouting her name. Which certainly explained the ringing she was feeling on both of her ears, at least.

She looked down at the part if her body that mother dear was pointing at, and blushed. Finally feeling the tough cloth of her military uniform (that she subconsciously summoned…?), she could see and feel her hands caressing the growing breasts underneath. Swiftly taking her hands away from the offending materials, she slowly turned her gaze to her mother, who actually looked pretty pissed.

The mother palmed her face, then pushed it down her face. In a very disappointed tone, she asked her daughter a very important question. "Why the hell were you playing with yourself, Issei? This late at night, and pretty loudly at that. That was a really loud shout you know, it woke me and your father up." She raised her hand to prevent Issei from responding, continuing her rant.

"I can tell you were doing it both figuratively and literally you know, but why the hell were you playing by yourself, Issei?" Issei had no answer to do that, and the blush still on her face was still not doing her any good. Mother sighed, took a notepad from her back pocket and began writing something on it. She folded it then passed it to Issei, and told her to go to sleep. Still looking at the now vacant space, she looked at the slip with some amount of reluctance. Flipping it open, she exhaled deeply, reading what it had to say.

_You can make it easier on yourself if you get and use the stuff I've hidden on a box here. Use these instructions to get to them. _

The paper led to somewhere in the backyard, but she wasn't interested in its contents, so she just crumpled it. Swapping back to her pajamas, she locked the door, closed the TV and fell back on her bed. Her eyes twitched even as she attempted to sleep, her satisfaction soured by the experience.

Issei and Nobu didn't speak to each other for a week after that. Except during New Year's Eve, but it was mostly something you had to do anyway.

**I was actually almost finished with this thing yesterday evening, but I fell asleep when I was editing this chapter on my laptop. I then noticed that I didn't charge my cellphone, so I realized then and there that I wouldn't be capable of finishing it until I found some time to procrastinate while I avoided my classmates in the other room. Thank goodness for that.**

**Just to make it clear, by the way, neither Issei nor Nobunaga are particularly _good_ at Guilty Gear. Certainly, on a casual-amateur level, maybe, but beyond that they're actually pretty shite. I would've loved to write what would happen in a high-level Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R (to the uninformed, that's actually the full title of the version of the game, sans the R in this context) game, but I wasn't sure how exactly to write that without having that level of skill. Considering that I actually play Guilty Gear one part for the story and the other for the soundtrack, and I don't have time or motivation to dedicate myself to that one version of the game, then yeah you can see where I'm getting at.**

**Oh yeah, I'm not sure where exactly this could take place myself since the stadium thingies was meant to be an imagine spot, but best I could describe it, this took place inside of Issei's inner mind.**

**And before I forget; _Christmastime lasts for practically half the year in the Philippines. _Of course I can make a Christmas related side story before it the calendar hit Advent!**

**See ya next month, I hope.**

**(And for that matter? Hope to see you in July for the Anniversary.)**


	8. Chapter 7 - Hidden Desires

**Well, it's practically been a month now. I'm sorry ahout that. But I'm back, and I knoe what I've been missing. Though, to be honest, it's not as much fun writing the bulk of the story compared to the various side stories so far. It's probably because I didn't have to rigorously keep the semi-serious mood I established so far, so eveything's all broody and stuff. Or something like that.**

**I've also rolled quite a bit this past month. And I got 4 5 Stars. Plus a Liz, but Carm will probably eat her whole when I'm not looking. 3 of them are dupes, and the fourth just happened to be the big tiddy storyteller. I don't know how to feel, since I really wanted Tomoe/Okkie. But I'm not complaining. Karna's looking mighty swole these days.**

**It's nowhere near the quality I want it to be, but eh. It's something.**

**(10:00 PM, 10-26) You guys aren't reviewing. That doesn't inspire confidence within me.**

Issei wasn't really sure how to describe the newcomer, but to be quite frank it was best that she didn't attempt to rationalize it for fear of losing her mind over the most trivial of things again. In a way, she was perfectly and mentally fit for the purposes that required her to do the things that she needed to do at the time, but disregarding that she was just... stressed, really. Describing it in even more greater detail would have been pointless, since it seemed as if she had gone through fits like this over and over again. Like a naive, disobedient child.

Though prepared to bury the hatchet with her own insecurities or not, nothing, and I mean nothing, would prepare herself to deal with another neurotic and eccentric magical girl wannabe. Well, considering that she was knocked out cold by her own hubris, the question now of what to do from here on was the primary focus on her mind. Now that she's knocked out cold, the question of what to do with her came to her mind. Surely, she understood the necessity of waking her up and doing her own little introduction, making sure that both sides understood the situation, you know the deal. But if she woke her up now, there was no telling how she would respond at all, and worse yet, she had nothing in mind to make sure that at least this introduction didn't get botched by her lack of knowledge in regards to Devil values or whatever. Creating an international incident was not something she wanted to do at all.

At least, the most she could do now was to at least clothe her in something, since she was pretty sure that that frilly dress of hers would be pretty darn chilly. A miniskirt wasn't suited for the early morning weather, especially not in an uncharacteristically chilly spring, though she didn't actually know all that much about devil physiology. For all she knew, devils were warmer by comparison, by mere virtue of mostly living in the underworld. Regardless, however, she would be kind. As a courtesy, she takes off her red cloak and draped it over the unconscious girl as a blanket.

Her eye twitched as she eyed the cheap wand on the ground, and she moved to pick it up. It was a cheap Chinese quality rip-off that was slightly modified to actually accept magical energies. Feeling rather vexed, she takes it from the unconscious girl, and crouched down next to her face. Her vision blurred and for a moment it was as if she wasn't in control of herself once again. When it cleared, she was left in a fairly uncompromising position, but at least nobody else could see her doing the pokey poke.

Actually, hold on. She was poking her with a magic stick now. Apparently, the situation has progressed to such an extent that she was actually using the ridiculous to balance out the ridiculous. She didn't know why, but by the time she was pressured into doing what she was doing right now, the mundane pokey poke appeared to seem like the rudimentary solution that she needed. She stoically processed the information as it came into her mind, and almost immediately decided on continue poking her with it. Honestly speaking, she should stop, and figure out something that would work in her favor.

But again, what really could she do? She found it necessary to repeat herself again as she was caught completely off guard by the new situation that had brought itself in her attention. It wasn't as if she was ready to meet a totally new friend out of nowhere just like that, but that was mostly because she clearly didn't intend to do something else at that point. Should she make it cordial and simple? Or bombastic, so that she could finally get some payback for the absurdity of the circumstance that she had found herself in.

An eye for an eye, so they say, except in this case it was closer to trading one clown for another clown, then traded that clown with a jester who worked with the Italian Mafia to prepare for their princess's birthday party. Or something along those lines at least, since she didn't really want to work on a world that lost its marbles oh so long ago. She actually wanted life as it was back then, before she had to go full on Angst Lord the Second, succeeding Shadow the Hedgehog and Sasuke Uchiha as lord-regent of the realm of dark backstories, but they had to live with their whole entire world view being shattered, and she, on the other hand, still had the opportunity to live a new life that her two previously mentioned edgelords have completely ignored for the most part.

At the very least, she still had her own life and that of her parents retained completely, no matter how close it was to collapsing because of the whole turning into a girl thing. She was thankful that Nobunaga managed to take control so easily, now that she thought about it. Her life, here and now, shall be defined entirely by the presence within herself, and that on its own brought large implications for the life she could have by then. She could certainly try to adhere to the model that Nobunaga had set out for her, but not right now. Not until she was ready to take the next big step.

'Heh,' she thought to herself. 'I don't think I want to see that just happen just yet. I can wait a little bit longer, just let me handle things as it is. By then I could make a final decision. I won't let you down any more, Oda Nobunaga. I can promise you that much.' The loud voice that would normally speak up in her mind stayed silent, but she knew within her heart that she would have agreed.

She stood up, satisfied, and contemplating life. As long as her mind didn't regress into a bipolar state once again, she should be fine. She kind of got used to the mental breakdowns, even considering that she reconciled with them on multiple occasions. But what was she so caught up with? This was like the second time already, and if it were up to her, this would be the final time she would ever need to be this introspective about her life! She smiled; satisfied that she finally had something of a conclusion.

She was so caught up in her own personal introspection that she didn't sense the creeping arm coming closer to her foot, and the pained groaning that accompanied it. When it grasped her, Issei also heard the low growl from the magical girl wannabe who was already regaining consciousness. The cold grip brought her out of her stupor, and her eyes slowly creeped downwards to see the tired eyes of the groggy girl. She muttered something lowly and at a low volume, almost gibberish and incomprehensible to normal ears, but heard perfectly by Issei's enhanced ears.

As it happened, Sona said, and I quote: "Sis…? Is it morning already…?" From her perspective at least, it was as if the older Sitri was standing before her, even considering the oriental features that were present in Issei's face. "Huh…? Who… are you again…?" She adjusted her lenses, as if to examine her more in detail, rubbing on Issei's metal boots all the while.

Just as Sona was about to continue her spiel, Issei smacked her unconscious with the magic stick, right on her face, leaving behind a very big, and red, bruise. She had a face of unrestrained panic, the violent response a direct result from the ultimately unexpected surprise that brought her from her stupor. Even considering that Sona didn't do anything truly bad at the end of the day, her out of nowhere wake-up call still brought some violent urges within Issei that she didn't know she had. Evidently, they were practically inherited from Nobunaga, who for the sake of this story had one incident in the past involving her friend Mori, a bed, and hours of lost sleep.

Suddenly realizing what she had done, she backtracks, horror setting on her face. She looks straight at the girl who flew a few meters away from her, then at the stick on her hand, broken slightly and dented. She throws it down, damaging it further and runs towards the girl to examine any potential wounds. The most she got was a goose egg on her forehead thankfully. She didn't have to worry about accidentally injuring a close family member of Serafall. She didn't activate Nobunaga's anti-divine skills, and what little there were didn't hurt her all that much, so there was no existential threat that risked bloody murder. At the very least, she could try and make amends. Humor her. Make her seem friendlier than someone who attacked an unknown and or neutral force unwarranted.

But how exactly was the question in her mind. She didn't have anything to entertain her with, nothing to break the ice, fix their problems, you get the picture. Unless she wanted to break a leg and dance that stupid dance she did, and believe me she didn't because by then...

Wait. She took a moment to look at the discarded magic stick sticking out on the dirt floor like some kind of cursed magical girl equivalent of the sword on the stone, and realized she might have the answer to the problem she was facing. Although ideally speaking, this wouldn't really fix any of the problems she was currently facing, personally speaking that is -and really, worst-case scenario it might actually make her situation much worse-, entertaining her with something she was familiar with might just do the trick. But the execution could be problematic but if she wasn't mistaken... She shivered, the uncomfortable memories of a day long lost to history still fresh on her mind.

An image of a younger Issei Hyoudou stuck out on her mind, 7 years of age and wearing the girliest outfit he had ever thought that he would have worn at that age. A 1000 Yen(...?) Halloween costume that they'd bought in the thrift store. A pink beret, and a frilly pink dress that emphasized a girlish youthfulness. Then, a pair of knee high socks and red loafers that rounded out the innocent, if extravagant fashion sense that she had. Her mother dressed him up that day, somehow looking both proud and strained at the end result, though she herself was straining to remember the exact image herself. That was mostly because it may have been traumatic. If it was really as traumatizing as she remembered, then yeah she would have a real problem on her hands. Then again, if anything bad came out of it, it would ultimately come down to her being a stubborn little kid and sticking her hand through the electric fan frame despite being told by her parents not to.

But if she was remembering it quite correctly, it was everyone else that was dressing Sakura up, her best friend knitting and sewing every single one of her costumes, and somehow making a new one for every monster of the week they fought against. The dress made somewhat out of rubber was her favorite, honestly. Though, in a reversal of fortunes, she was making the executive decision here, not someone else, so if there was anyone to blame for the fluff she was potentially going to subject herself with, it would come down to her and her alone.

'_Issei… Are you really sure about this? I get that it's all cute and stuff, but…_' Nobunaga asked, surprised that Issei had a history of adorable crossdressing long before she had arrived already. The distinction between regular crossdressing and 'adorable' crossdressing went through deaf ears, but Issei got the gist of it. And she also chose not to answer, so as to retain the sanity and brief respite of calm that she had obtained just an hour earlier, even if it was kept and held together by sheer force of anger alone.

She gazed at the stick once more, and steeled her resolve. Walking back to the unconscious body, she left behind a bag of candies and a note telling the girl explaining and apologizing for the events earlier, and essentially bribing her with sweets so as to shut her up and avoid any potential problems in the future. Hopefully, it would be most of them. She picked the stick up and mindlessly tossed it straight onto the other girl's forehead again with a loud THONK. She walked methodically out of the forest to the direction of her home, making sure to avoid direct contact with any people who might recognize her in the attire.

She unlocked, opened, closed and locked the door. She found none of her parents inside, and so she readied her search. As was expected, the costume wasn't anywhere inside of the house. Opening every single cabinet, drawer, nook and cranny with superhuman speed, she was just about ready to resign and use the lesser quality costume inside of her closet until she remembered that she noticed something peculiar.

Going back to one of the kitchen drawers, specifically inside of the drawer that held the aluminum foil and ziplock bags, she pulled on the knob. Noticing a piece of paper taped on top of it, she takes it off and reels, fear setting in and worry starting to pour in. It was a picture.

On the picture was him on the disgraceful magical girl outfit of two years ago. He was posing with a peace sign next to the very blond haired and not at all Chinese looking Shidou wrapped around her arm, cheap wand pointing down and with a sweet grin of innocence. The costume fit her then like a glove, the light make up, androgynous looks and appropriate behavior fooling everyone in the Halloween party of his former identity, provided they didn't know who she was in the first place. She would be honest with herself, the Issei then looked adorable, but any amount of gushing that either side of the argument might have been capable of opining went down the drain when very quickly she would note that the person on the picture was her. Any other day, she would gush over the cuteness. But the fact that it was her back in the day hurt herself in the inside.

Even then, though, it was one of the first competitions she won fair and square, with all of the judges agreeing unanimously that he was wearing the best costume in the school. She didn't even need to talk about the quality of the costume itself, because it was made of the toughest, most resilient of materials while still being silky smooth and light to the touch. It wasn't low quality at all, and it was totally custom made. The fact that she actually roleplayed as Sakura rather convincingly at the time was enough reason for them to give her the gold medal at the time, but the crown jewel here was that Shidou went along with along with all of it, even recreating the scene where Sakura jumped to kiss Syaoran in the movie. The romantic subtext went over her head even now, though, but everyone else could see it.

She twisted it on the other side, and read the message taped on it. The message read, with her father's handwriting no less. It read:

'_Issei, if you and that magical girl friend of yours went out fighting evil together in the future, I think that it would make do for you to wear the appropriate attire. Remember the Sakura outfit you wore at your school's Halloween festival a few years back? It's the image you're holding right now. I've dug a hole for it in the yard a year ago when we couldn't find any room for it. The idea was that it was a time capsule for your kids. The box itself is covered in plastic and duct tape, so if you want or need it opened just cut it through with a knife._' - Love, your Dad.

On a section labeled "addendum", it read . '_We've also made a commission from the tailor to make a few more copies for you to use in the future. Some of them are on your size, and others the rough estimate that you would be in the future. Don't ask me why, your mother put her up with it, so you have to deal with the consequences. I think it was some deal they made._' Below even _that_ was another addendum, with a seemingly sardonic tone, reading '_Don't ask me why I decided stuff the costume inside of a time capsule, or why I thought it was important enough to give you the directions to open it now of all times. It was your mother's idea for the most part._'

Just before she could interject, Nobunaga adjusted her eyes to the drawer, where another photograph faced down on the equipment lying down.

The back of the photograph read, "We love you no matter what you look like, Issei. You are, and will always be, our one and only son." On the front side was a photo she had never seen before. It was her mother and father, looking much younger and lying down on a hospital bed. Her mother was lying on the bed with arms cradling a young babe. Father was sitting down next to her as they posed for the camera.

Even with the tired look on their faces, their smiles were of unsuppressed joy, enough to make a teardrop to go down her eye. The dopey look on his baby face was enough to make her smile. She took both photos, and placed them both on her wallet till she could find a safe place to put both of them in.

Observing the situation, Nobunaga added. '_I think they set up all of this for you when they saw how stressed you seemed, Issei. They were worried, I guess, when it seemed like you were going to pressure yourself into doing something you couldn't back out from. Something I influenced you to do, and I really am sorry about that_..." The mental image smiled weakly. "_But all things considered, they really love you, you know. I think that's the most important part._" Issei muttered a 'Thank You, Nobu' and walked to the place in the yard she knew would most likely be hiding the goods.

Shoveling all of the dirt where she reckoned the box to be, she found it just peeking slightly on the side. Pulling it out of the hole it found itself in, she cut the tape and plastic it was covered in, and dusted it off. Taking the top half off, she ignores the massive imitation of the one organ she would never hold on her hands ever again and pushes it to the side, so as to focus on the one important thing that she was looking for. Beneath all of the junk and gunk was a pretty pink dress, a pink beret and some other stuff. It felt familiar just holding it, which was reassuring. The one thing that didn't pop up was the pair of socks she would have used, but that was mostly because she repurposed them to be used in her regular school uniform, because nobody could see the more girly aspects to its design being that they were cleverly hidden behind her all of the black slacks.

She muttered something beneath her breath, and at once her clothing disappeared into a few orbs of light of light. This was a trick that Nobunaga told her about earlier, who noted that though she never actually did such a thing in life it would have been as simple as willing it on or off when she became a servant. The clothing wouldn't disappear for good, of course. Rather, it would reappear when she willed it into being again, like her guns. Hefting the crate up, she stood up and prepared to move.

There thankfully wasn't much else for her to do outside, and there wasn't much to see underneath all that baggy clothing to begin with, but she did bring the box up the stairs with her. She pointedly threw the adult junk into the pit so as to avoid any questioning from her potentially, understandably, concerned parents. The lean, fit figure of Nobunaga's youthful body was something she wouldn't quite be used yet, even when she was wearing the baggy uniform.

Still though, just running around while hefting a box a great deal bigger than their body size up the stairs made the differences in her physique obvious, so she had to move in a specific pattern. It made her move in awkward positions so that she could avoid obstacles, squeezing her thighs while moving up the stairs sideways to fit on the tight staircase. That on its own made the lack of a certain tool obvious, something she didn't necessarily notice or care about until now. It didn't feel right not having something between her to balance her hips, at least, or something to that effect because she was actually busy with something at the time and thus was incapable of articulating it eloquently.

Opening the door, she dropped the whole thing next to her bed, and brushed a bead of sweat away. She then sat down and prepared to dress up in the Cardcaptor cosplay, wiping all of the sweat away with a towel she had left behind after bathing that morning. She pulled up the knee high socks before the rest of her clothing, and moved to the rest.

On the inside of her mind, a certain warlord questioned how useful dressing up as a mahou shoujo to entertain a chuuni magical devil girl's equally chuuni magical devil sister would really be. Though she had her fair share of gambles in the past, they never necessarily went out of their way to do something as ridiculous as this, besides that one time she made Katsu crossdress to act as bait. Katsu looked really cute in that yukata though, so maybe if she ever met him again in this life she would making him do that again.

She said, "_Issei, I'm not normally the kind of person who should say this but... What would you gain out of this? And why?_" She scratched the back of her non-physical neck within the realms of Issei's inner sanctum. "_You could've talked to her normally. Greeted her, said hello, how are you doing, 'I'm sorry for hurting you badly, miss' instead of doing... you know. I respect your audacity, kid, but this goes beyond the typical 'I grew up as a girl and hid it so well, history remembered me as a man' scenario I've grown familiar with, heck I'm one of the peak examples! You're basically jumping the shark already, Issei, and you just started your hero's journey!_" She sighed, and weakly smiled.

"_Fact is, I just want to make sure that you were okay. It was to make sure that you weren't doing this out of sheer desperation. ... Am I Right? Please tell me I'm not wrong_." She was left in the silence as Issei stoically put on the magical girl costume, pointedly ignoring her speech. Nobu fidgeted a little bit, wondering if she started ranting too early.

The mental image perked when Issei appeared to follow through after putting on the beret, a deep sigh coming through her mouth. "There's no deep meaning to all of this, Nobunaga-" Nobunaga interrupted her, despite her grumbling about Issei not saying anything meaningful for the past few minutes.

"_Just call me Nobu, Issei. Everyone called me that back in the day, anyway. The formal talk was something I let you go ahead with because I thought you were just trying to be polite, but now it's starting to be a mouthful._" She grins. "_I think we've grown close enough to go for a nickname basis, so that gives me the authority to call you Ise as well._" A beat. "_Is that alright?_"

The interruption silenced Issei, making the situation too awkward for her to continue the rant she was about to say. "A-Ah, sure thing, um... Nobu." She coughed, and did her best to continue the discussion as smoothly as possible. "A-Anyway, moving on... You could say I was looking forward to this?" To this, she was met with silence.

She judged the situation, and relaxed. "I guess you could say this is the closest thing to meeting up with an old friend... I mean, I did ask for mom and dad to get this one so I could play dress-up with Shidou..." She slouched a bit. "But I didn't intend for something of this extent to happen."

She stood up and looked straight at the mirror. Though just a little bit smaller on her now, thanks to the leaner build, it still fit perfectly. If you divorced the fact that Issei didn't have brown hair anymore, then yes, Issei looked okay if a tad ridiculous considering the conflicting appearances of a serious little girl wearing a pink magical girl dress. Her face was flat and unmoving. Her eyes looked up and down the reflection, contemplating the overall appearance. She bunched up her hair into a ponytail shape for a little bit to compare it to her appearance then.

Her head faced down and her shoulders slouched. She was beginning to regret going ahead with this decision. "I'm starting to think this was a bad idea." To this, Nobunaga replied. "_Well, you got this far ahead, right? Then just go for it, I don't see a problem with this_." Still staring back at the mirror, Issei nodded back at the reflection, and went downstairs to clean everything else that she couldn't be bothered to describe. Once done, she went back to the park, still debating on some aspects of the extremely impractical battle plan that Issei wasn't backing out on.

Issei practiced katas that were supposedly related to the performance in the field. No single move was wasted, so she waved her hands back and forth in... whatever stupid thing she was imitating then. I don't know, so as to show the girl who was currently very unconscious something to enjoy before they properly introduced themselves to each other. It was a fortunate thing that no regular person would be capable of seeing her do these stunts because of how isolated and warded it was, and especially because Issei thought that the blackness of her current hairstyle didn't truly fit the attire as she saw it. Understandable, considering the girl was once a brunette boy before the transformation.

All of these happened right as Sona Sitri woke up once more, just in time to see Issei Hyoudou in a fairly uncompromising position, again. She laid on the grass, rubbing her head in pain and resting the goose egg that she found nestled on her forehead, and gazed upwards to see the girl she set out to introduce herself to as the little sister of their big sister biologically, and thus soon to be other big sister by proxy, doing exactly the same thing she set out to do herself. Only, this time, she was wearing an infinitely more childish attire than what she was currently wearing now. She sat down on the grassy knoll with a befuddled expression and an even darker shade of red coloring her cheeks, unable to say much of anything.

The sound of a meek "Eep," from behind her caught Issei's attention, turning her head around to see the girl she was supposed to be surprising then just staring at her. Although she would normally be glad that Miss Sona was awake and alive instead of dreary and unconscious so that she could ask for her own consent to do her own little entrance thingie to make her happy or something happen, the simple fact that she felt a cooler breeze spread through her lower back realize as much that something was pretty wrong and off. To be more exact, Sona was staring at her posterior, covered in a pair of tight spandex cycling shorts.

Cycling shorts that Nobunaga advised her to wear because, and I quote, "_Attract both the boys and the girls in the yard whenever they see you running around in a pair of these!_" And also, "_I think they're cute._" Evidently, practical they may be at hiding the undergarments underneath, the simple fact that she could still see the frills on the edges of her shorts were enough to be at least mildly concerning, but the fact that the shorts were still tight enough to show her pantyline through them was concerning to say the least. Oh, and the fact that they were still kids, that part was important too.

The two children froze, staring intently at each other with neither side attempting to make a move, both of them scared of whatever the other person might do. Sona, at the very least, tried to hide her flustered face from behind her hands, avoiding eye contact with Issei. Issei slowly moved her arms to cover up the spread out clothing, moving the skirt that had been embedded on the backside of her blouse because of a piece of sap that got between them. She turned around to face the sitting down girl, and it almost seemed as if they would have a confrontation for fairly understandable reasons, both sides having done a grievous action or otherwise to the other party.

The tension was high. Then it was cut away completely as both sides immediately bowed down, loud "I'm so sorry!/Sumimasen!"s coming from both of them, Issei going so far as to bow down to the floor so as to stay on the same level as Sona. Equally synced "Eh!?"s followed afterwards, and motions implying a misunderstanding, or attempted humbleness were both observed.

"W-Why are you saying sorry, Miss Sitri, I smacked you with your own stick and knocked you out for the last f-few minutes!" "No no no— I should be the one saying sorry because this was my own fault in the first place — I mean I didn't need to go this far just to introduce myself to my new little sister and all but—..." "Hardly! You just wanted to introduce yourself to me, a-and I responded in kind by being mean!" ""Fact is/Point is, Miss Issei/Sona, you don't need to defend yourself because that doesn't mean anything. What does matter is that you need to accept my deepest apologies!""

They faced other once again, both staring at each other, wondering what the hell had just happened. Issei giggled briefly, but immediately closed her mouth to avoid insulting the other girl. Sona saw the action, however, and giggled herself, causing both to start laughing together. They both vented their frustrations on each other through the power of laughter, going so far as to pat each other on the back so that they could breathe easier. They would go so far as to hug each other directly, both of them too tired to squat on their own.

After a while, they stopped laughing. The two children release their embrace, and judge each other momentarily. Sona offers Issei her hand, which Issei takes, and this is where Sona took the opportunity to stand up and give herself a proper introduction. "My name is Sona. Current heir to the House of Sitri after my elder sister Serafall had been chosen to succeed the Leviathan of the Old Satans." She coughed into her hand and smirked, adjusting her eyeglasses to catch some light and (hopefully) make her look more sinister. In Issei's honest opinion, it just looked like she was adjusting her eyeglasses because of her sight deficiencies. 'Poor girl,' Issei thought to herself.

"Besides being told by my elder sister that you would be joining our privileged Academy as a transfer student because of unforeseen consequences involving both your current state of affairs and your elementary school being attacked by a rogue assassin," she says, looking at piece of paper she had recovered from somewhere, with her hand still holding on to her glasses' rim. "Which I believe is fair enough as it is, since though you have some problems involving mathematics and sciences according to your school records…"

She takes another piece of paper from… somewhere, and shows it to Issei. Issei recognized it as the project she did for a drawing contest just a few months before of a realistically drawn image of an adult woman harvesting in the rice fields. The anatomy was fairly spot on, but it appeared to be pretty busty thanks to the model that she had used for it. "You do have untapped potential in the arts, something our school is well-fit to enhance and train you in." Issei declined to explain that she was solely motivated to draw so well because her mother offered to bring them to Disneyland if she won. She didn't win, but her parents brought her there anyway for Christmas, which was nice.

Sona's covers her mouth. "Ah, I've almost forgotten something! You didn't properly introduce yourself as well, right? Um…" She shifts a little bit, a light blush coloring her cheeks. "Well, my sister told me that you had something special to tell me about yourself about anyway… I guess you could do both of the same of them at the same time. Would you do so now?"

Issei smiled. In a moment, the ridiculous outfit that she was wearing disappeared in an instant; her drive to use such a thing faded very quickly after the judging looks had taken its toll. In its place was the black officer's uniform that she first met Sona with earlier that day. The only thing that hadn't changed for her was her beret, the equivalent hat simply falling neatly into place above it with no intention of falling off. She put her gloved hand over her chest and began to speak.

"My name is Issei Hyoudou. I'm not a part of any noble house, or even a devil to begin with, but just a normal human being with superpowers I guess. And the thing that your sister told you about was… well." She scratched the back of her neck. "I guess you could say I'm your younger sister now, though I'm guessing you already knew that much, at least."

"Oh, truly? Was that actually the surprise? That was kind of the whole reason why I came here to meet you in the first place. Was there anything else?"

"Oh, um. Yes actually, there was. Your sister… might have gone all the way, so even if I'm not technically a full member of your family, I could still represent you or someone else if you absolutely needed to, or something. Your sister said something along the lines of me feeling like a devil anyway, so… Yeah."

"Hmm? Is that right… I'm pretty sure there was something else underneath that, right? Oh, that reminds me." She digs through her pockets (that Issei was pretty sure she didn't actually have) and picked up a small emblem featuring the same rising sun design that Nobu's hat had. "Could you please explain to me what this was supposed to be? My sister handed it to me this morning when she passed me by, though I'm guessing that the similar design choice with your hat had something to with it."

"Oh, that thing. Your sister handed me one too when she was just about to leave after the discussion at my house. She said that we would be forming a vigilante magical girl troupe of sorts." She rubbed the back of her neck, grinning all the while. "I don't know what the hell all that was about, but I thought it was a pretty good idea. I always wanted to go on a cross country trip across Japan anyway. That sounds fun, right, Sona? Sona?"

She stands straight and looks at Sona. A moment of silence had passed. Then, what followed after was an "EEEEHHHHHH!?" Sona fell to the ground.

"W-Wait, hold on Sona, let me explain!" It was too late, it seemed, as Sona had fallen unconscious. She caught her just before she could fall to the ground. Issei looked back and forth, panicked, and settled her down. She started writing furiously on a notepad she got from her backpack about the things Sona needed to know, seeing how she didn't actually get to explain her position at all.

A few moments later…

"Ah, I see… So that's really why Serafall wanted to meet up with you, huh…" Sona said thoughtfully. "I guess I have to hand it to her, at least. I'm not all too surprised that you managed to befriend her so easily though, since I always found that she was a pretty big softy."

She puts a finger on her chin. "I guess I wouldn't exactly know what it's like to become another person, but all things considered… Did you regret it?"

"Ah… Regret what exactly?"

"This. Your life as it is now. You know, turning into a girl like me, superpowers or not."

Issei opened up her mouth, then closes it. She just smiles, and shakes her head.

"That's great! Come on, follow me." Sona pulls Issei up and picks up her bag, and out of the clearing they went. Issei voiced her confusion.

"I'll be taking you to a restaurant I know, then I'll be touring you around Kuoh Academy after that so that you could get used to the surroundings before your official debut. Does that sound good?" Sona smiled when she sees Issei's smiling face and nod, from which she continued. "Great! Then let's get moving."

They walked out of the clearing once again. They picked up their bags, and leave behind the piles of straw that were supposed to be used in her training. That was something for next time, at least.

**Look, I had to shoehorn something Halloween-related somehow, okay. And I was always planning for Issei to join an impromptu team of Magical Girls whose primary aim is silencing and beating the crap out of threats to humanity and harboring a great risk of unravelling the masque that was so delicately built up over millenia, like stray devils, loose cannons, and more unscrupulous people with magical powers. That sorta thing'll be in the background, at least, not a main focus, but I think I can make a few scenarios here and there.**

**Additionally, I just gave up trying to describe whatever the hell I intended Issei to do here. It was getting harder and harder to think of redundant ways to describe a single scene.**

**I avoided naming the Sakura Kinomoto costume as Sakura Kinomoto because I wanted to avoid non-existent copyright claims. I mean, admittedly, if this website actually made money out of the stories themselves instead of ad revenue or something, we'd all be getting the copyright boot. Still, a bit awkward in execution, but I didn't want to rely on just calling it "The Sakura Costume" or something dumb like that.**

**Again, stiff writing, mostly because I'm constrained to the limitations of having to write down events and stuff before canon could officially begin, which would at least give me a basis that which to write on. _sigh_ Thank God I'm already done with this part of the story now. I can finally start the baby steps towards LNs 1-5.**

Side Story: Or, _the lengths that lady luck would take in order for Issei Hyoudou would have an original magical girl uniform instead of just aping the outfit from an established media._

Issei found another magic stick in her bedroom closet just a few days after her meeting with Sona. It was a quaint little thing that she found while cleaning up her room for the second time that month after another unremarkable stray devil attempted to take her out despite the plethora of wards defending her home, hidden deep inside of a chest that she thought was owned by her parents and was left behind in her bedroom by accident. It was a cute little thing, honestly, but it was overall pretty derivative of most general purpose magical girl designs. It reminded her of Cardcaptor Sakura's magical stick, if she was being quite honest, with the star in the middle of a ring, though for the most part the only thing that made it unique were the pair of wings near the ring, which shared the same color with the wings itself.

Issei thought that she had merely misplaced the stick inside of her closet when she put everything away to where they should be, like the box inside of the big hole she just filled in with dirt and grass, and the costume in the laundry to be washed and cleaned, but the obvious difference from the much simpler design choice made the distinction quite clear. She then thought back to her parents, whom she knew to be very big nerds in their youth and thought that they might have had something to do with it and the box that it came with, but brushed that thought to the side, thinking that maybe that even this would be a stretch to think that her parents had a hand in everything nerdy that she had experienced so far.

It was actually pretty mean to even consider that anyway, but there was a perfctly good reason for that assessment so far. Letting their kid go to the school halloween party in a dress was one thing of course, but hiring a professional cosplayer and tailor to knit a brand new costume in just 2 weeks in their bid to let him go all in was another. That she wouldn't bat an eye at the thought of them actually having spares said a lot.

Still though, the box and wand were enigmas she didn't quite have the answers to. The chest wasn't something she was wholly familiar with, though she clearly remembered it inside of her closet molding for at least a year so far, but the fact that she didn't bother wondering why or how on earth it found itself inside of her closet was pretty curious. Or it might simply be that she wouldn't have needed to. She was the person airheaded enough to trip and fall into a magic circle when there were next to no pebbles or bumps on the road home in the first place, or to carelessly walk into it, mesmerized, rather than walk away from it like a normal human being.

Crouching on the ground and touching the smooth metal did give her an idea though, and if the magic infused into it that she could feel pulsing inside of it was any indication, it might as well have been the real deal. Who would know if her mother or grandmother might have been a magical girl themselves? It all made sense if she thought about it, considering her deadpan acceptance of the supernatural occurrences around her, her dismissive nature towards Miss Serafall's outfit, and especially with how easily she bought into the Magical Girl excuse herself. After all, who else but a retired veteran magical girl would be so perceptive about the skills and abilities of a neophyte magical girl? ... Nah, it couldn't have been. But it was pretty cool thinking about it.

Standing up straight, patting her pants of any dust and ignoring the stench of the blood and guts that hadn't quite subsided yet from her bedroom. It was for this reason that she left the windows open for most of the day - the neighbors filed a complaint about the smell one day later, but it was easily ignored. She gripped tightly on the magical girl stick and imitated all sorts of poses she remembered from the magical girl anime she actively watched as a kid. She danced and weaved around her bedroom, taking due care to avoid any of her valuables or for any bits and pieces that she had just cleaned up to clutter on the floor once more.

Thinking back on it, she realized that she hadn't done a full on transformation sequence yet. Her introduction to Sona didn't involve one as she originally planned since she didn't really have the time to represent it, but she did try her best to incorporate bits and pieces of it by (menacingly) materializing parts of her uniform whenever it seemed cool. Maybe today was when she should try it out...? She stood up straight, a hand rubbing her chin with her arms crossed with the wand held on the other hand. She snapped her fingers after making out an idea, causing the stick to fall into the floor and clatter, and she would immediately scramble to get it back.

After recovering it, she breathed in. With the wand on hand she set her plan into motion, allowing herself to get into the feel of things. With her arms pointing back, and a knee raised upwards, she looked absolutely ridiculous. Using the minor floating powers that Nobunaga possesses she raised her handafterwards mockingly, preparing to pretend as if her ability to spontaneously change clothes due to Nobu's inherited abilities had a direct correlation with magical girl powers like Sailor Moon and the Pretty Cures.

As she slowly lifted up from the floor, Issei was thinking. 'I... hmm... I'm not really good at making lines of my own but if I just take a few notes from what I remember from Nobu's Noble Phantasm chant, then... That should work.' As she slowly raised her arm, chanting lines derived directly from the only thing that Nobunaga has ever said consistently without variation. "Show your corpse to the Three Thousand Worlds... Demon Descent! Behold, the Demon King's Transformation!" She thought it imperative to make the distinction between dumb, cutesy stuff to awesome transformation sequences, because you see, she was a mature magical girl, damn it, and if she had to live with that distinction for the rest of her life, then she'd try her best to do so no matter what the cause.

Not to say that she didn't like cute stuff, of course. She just thought that it would be pretty funny to have such a clashing of themes be a central aspect to her floaty coolness. As she floated upwards, up until the stick hit the ceiling, magical energies coursed through the area, shaking her house slightly with magical energies, enough to vibrate the desks, beds and other furniture, but not enough to actually destroy the whole foundation. Unknowingly most of the energy actually went inside of the stick, an action that Issei... Didn't really notice, considering how into it she was in the first place.

In a flash, the transformation sequence that she was looking for happened. Slowly her clothes disappeared in orbs of light, slowly filling her entire being -though that was because she was wearing a lot of clothing to conform with PPE regulations that her parents reminded her of- and were replaced immediately by the flashy clothes that Nobunaga technically was never known to wear but suited her completely regardless. Thinking back on it, the fact that she was already so used to referring to Oda Nobunaga of all people as a woman was a testament to her apparently deteriorating mental health.

Then again, memory serves that Nobu said she was hardly the most outrageous example of history not remembering their historical figures properly anyway. At least, that was what Nobu told her about her own universe. She grinned, looking down on her bedroom floor, pretending that all of the jerks that talked her down and was mean to her, was then and there looking up to her in awe. From there, her mind moved from them practically groveling at her feet, to them being shot by bullet after bullet, blood splattering all over as they die immediately with bullet holes dismembering their entire being. Though satisfying it may have been, the moment she realized what she was thinking about, she immediately dropped all pretenses in horror, because no matter how much she detested them... She wouldn't go out of her way to kill them.

The floating girl took measures to avoid thinking too much on the subject, making sure that she at least had some enjoyment left that she could make use of. She slowly floats down to the floor. She mutters quietly, "Well, I guess that was pretty cool anyway... Still, I can't be much of a hero's successor if I actually went out of my way to kill innocent people, right…" She smiles.

"Pretty cool? You think? That was pretty awesome, actually! And the fact that you went out of your way to stop yourself from killing your imaginary classmates was awesomely honorable! Believe me, Issei-chan, you're a lot better than you think you are!" A noise retorted from her right hand, chastising her for thinking herself too lightly. Issei nodded, accepting the honest critisism but not thinking about it too much. "Besides, you're a really nice kid! Who wouldn't want you as a friend? Those bullies had no right to treat you that way."

"Well I guess, but you know how it is... When you just get used to stuff like this, things just happen... I appreciate the thought, though." She smi0led looking happily at the sound source with her eyes closed... Until she realized something. She opened her eyes, and she looked down on the stick which was suddenly so animate, and looking at her with a look of confusion on its eyes. Her mouth was wide open, her entire body twitching every so often as her eyes morph into abject horror.

"What is it? Is there something on my face or something?" The stick asked her a question. It was sentient, as it appeared, like most magical girl animal or inanimate object sidekicks would. It honestly shouldn't have been as surprising as it should've been, considering what she had went through with the whole thing about magic and heroes and magical creatures, but that wasn't the point. Sure, there were magical girls out there, key example being Serafall-onee who went out of her way to be thematically a magical girl in the first place, but that was the point. Magical girls as they knew it didn't exist, since even the concept of giving contracts to become dolled-up superheroines was ridiculous enough on its own.

And that was enough for her throw it to the other side of her room, smacking onto the wall loudly, the stick leaving a dent as it fell to the ground. The stick itself appeared rather pained and confused, rubbing the top half of its wings. Issei quickly shuffled back to her side of the room, leaning against the wall and immediately carrying a large musket and a few more around here to scare the perceived threat away from her. "S-Stay back, I say! I d-don't want any trouble, or a-anything y-you're offering! I already have enough problems with Nobu on her own as is, I-I don't want another roommate when I have enough problems with just one of them! Honest!"

The stick looked mildly confused. "What...? What are you talking about? Um... Ah." The stick scratches its "head" with the butt end of its lower half. It floats around for a little bit, cautiously moving towards Issei despite the very real threat of it being turned into an ashy mess being emphasized. She floats towards her, close enough to Issei's face to be enough of a privacy problem. Issei would slowly push the floating stick away from her with the gun, only holding the handle to avoid accidentally puncturing a hole into bedroom wall, or worse, hurt someone in the process.

"You know that I could give you magical girl powers, right?" She nods. "You got that much from watching all those magical girl anime and manga when the shounens weren't airing, right?" She nods, a little bit mo

re hesitantly because that was a detail only she really knew about. "You also understand the implications that could arise if you went ahead with this kind of thing… whatever they may be?" She nodded again, much slower than the last. "And more importantly, you already had experience with magical girls out there in the world, if your ambivalent opinion of me were any indication."

She blanked, and thought back to the quirky sisterly pair she had met by then, close friends, and elder sister figures by way of her iincredibly awkward –though adorable by the honest opinions of Serafall and Sona- attempt at convincing them to accept her into their family. To this, she nodded harshly, the whiplash from her hair being just strong enough to whip the Kaleidostick away a short distance. When she came to, she asked, "How the hell did you learn about that anyway? You can't possibly have observed everything me and my family have been doing for the past few years. That's just creepy!"

"Actually, I did." She slumped. The so far unnamed stick scratched its head wings. "Um. Well, basically my boss dropped me into your house a year ago roughly, and left me in a mostly inactive state. I used the active parts of my being to tune into the household wherever I could, and started to read into everything I could've." It looks down. "The rest of me started to wake up when those wards of yours started activating. They caused just enough of a disturbance for me to slowly absorb the atmospheric mana that were broken apart by the wards. All of that kickstarted when you opened the box he stuffed me in, and picked me up."

It breathed in. Somehow. "Does that make sense to you?" Issei shook her head. "Ah, well fair enough, I guess." It floated a little in the silence. The guns were still pointed towards it, but they didn't really pose enough of a threat for them to be a concern. Regardless, it sighed –somehow- and decided to break the ice once and for all.

"I mean, I kind of get your concerns, but ask yourself, why not? You're a superhero already, I get that, but becoming a magical girl might be a pretty good change in perspective! You just need to tell me your name and we can get started with it. Come on, give it a try!" The stick looked expectantly at Issei, as it waited for an outward response.

Issei took a brief moment to think, and spoke to Nobunaga about her own opinion about the situation at hand. She sighed, as it seemed even Nobunaga concurred. "_Why not,_" Nobunaga boisterously replied, "_It's a totally new thing for the both of us, and it might serve to get yourself a little more power of your own! Besides, I don't know what it's like to be a magical girl myself! It might be a new experience that could be calling for you, Ise!_" Issei didn't have much to reply to that.

Issei looks up to the stick, and nods. "Fine, I'll do it. But only so long as you give me a name to call you by! I didn't know what to call you so far, so I just called you jerk stick inside of my head." A large bead of sweat dropped on the side of the Kaleidostick's star, but before it could say anything, Issei did it for it. "It's Issei Hyoudou, by the way. I think you already know the origin behind that…"

"It's nice to meet you, Issei-chan! That was all I needed to know to write you down as my master. On my end, I am the magic stick of justice and compassion, Magical Emerald! I take after my elder sister Ruby a lot, for the most part, but I try my best to be as close to my elder sister Sapphire as well! It's really nice to meet you, believe me—"

"Yeah yeah, just get it over with already. Come on." Issei dematerialized the guns at once. She beckoned the now-named Magical Emerald over to her hand. Emerald would try to say something in order to call her out on her frankness, but there was no point in doing so. It shrugged, and gingerly floated into her hand. "What do we do now?"

"Ah, that's easy. I'll do it now. _Compact full open!_" "I'm sorry, wha-!?" Issei's body becomes enveloped in a bright light, covering her entire body up to her neck and arms, moving her limbs in rhythm to facilitate the transformation better. "_Mirror world circuits: maximum engage!_" Orbs form around her, and a big white one formed between her hands, practically hosting the magical girl spirit that Emerald called for.

A ruffly leotard blouse thing formed over her body. Though it didn't go over her shoulders, it still had a separate collar and a cute little bowtie in the middle. It had disconnected sleeves, wrapping neatly around her elbow, nylon frills cornering each side, and with ribbons decorating them. Two gloves formed, kind of like Illya's, with the added bonus of having a golden lining around the edge to bling it out even more. A few petals, for lack of a better word, circled her waist to form the basic skirt.

She smirks, winking at a nonexistent camera. "That's it, Issei! The mischievous cuteness of a magical girl suits you so perfectly!" Or so the stick said, its attempts to break the fourth wall not going anywhere.

Finally, her legs began to change. A long pair of bright green boots with short heels that went up to her knees materialized slowly, ribbons wrapping around the shin, and a ribbon tying themselves on the shoe laces. A pair of stockings, garter and all, would be seen by the prying eye, but otherwise would only be seen by the most dedicated of degenerates. This was because of the skirt that formed over them, ruffly and poofy, poofing outwards thanks to the crinoline keeping itself together. Her hair had two emerald studded rings on both ends of her head, splitting part of her into a pair of pigtails, and a small golden tiara on the center rounded out her appearance.

All said and done, the newly minted magical girl (though she technically already was one) posed coolly, one hand holding the stick and the other with a peace sign over her eye. The transformation was complete. And in a flash, she was back in her room, her clothing somehow wrapping itself neatly once more on her beddings once again like the last time she did something like this. Issei would move her hand up her face to wipe a bead of sweat that built up on the sweltering heat.

The keyword being would. Somehow, somewhere, she couldn't move her body, which had apparently decided on doing something on its own, namely shake in confusion as her eyes moved towards her hands, which were slowly moving upwards to her line of sight. "No way…" A sick feeling in her stomach was all that she could feel after realizing that she didn't say that line herself. Nervous sweat arises as she tries to call for Nobunaga all around her mind, until she realizes something. Nobu wasn't inside of her mindscape this time around, she wasn't exorcised or anything like that, and the only place that she could be besides her mind would be in the driver's seat. Which means to say…

"Why am I controlling your body, Issei!?" Nobu shouted, very afraid of the implications. "Issei are you there? Please say yes! I don't want to even think that I might have killed you for good…!" It took a while for Issei to find a place for herself to respond, but when she did, she did.

'_Y-Yeah, I'm fine, Nobu. I'm still here… I think we just swapped places._'

"What? That makes no sense whatsoever, only I could do that! Hey you! Magical Emerald! Explain for us, please!"

"Ah, u-um. I didn't honestly expect a heroic spirit to be lying dormant inside of you, so I'm guessing it just kicked Issei out of the bridge. Honest, I don't know what happened myself!" This didn't satisfy Nobunaga, who felt content to pick up the defenseless little stick and threaten it to answer.

"Why you little…!" The door was knocked loudly, attracting both Nobunaga and Emerald's head towards the door. "Issei, are you in there? Issei!" The door opened, revealing the middle aged woman who also doubled as Issei's mother. "Ise! Issei, I… Hmm." The mother stood still, still holding onto the doorknob as she would observe slowly the attire of her former son-now-daughter. She judged cautiously, and stared at 'Issei' blankly with the expression she opened the door with still for a few moments.

The awkward silence was broken, when the mother decided to intervene herself.

"Do we need to talk about this on the dinner table?"

Nobunaga smiled nervously, and nodded her head once, also releasing the tight chokehold on the stick. She stood up with her hands behind her back, taking care to avoid any suspicion from the mother. Though the mother had good reason to ask more on the topic, she decided it was worth continuing the dinner table anyway.

"Alright, that's fair enough. Just try to get dressed in something more appropriate for the time being, okay? I know how much you like magical girls. But just don't get too into it, alright?"

The door closed. All the pressure built up on her knees were released, as she falls to the ground in a heap. Breathing heavily, she glares straight into the 'eyes' of Emerald, who could only gulp helplessly.

**Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. Get it? I haven't read the manga in a while by the way, and last I remembered I was up to like chapter 2 of the second series. Guess that's something I'll also be doing in the past time. Hell yes, more lesbian lolis.**

**Yes, this is canon. No, it shouldn't be too relevant. I could've made this directly part of the story, but it felt better as a one-off. I feel like that's how I treat the side stories anyway... Issei seems like a smart enough kid to understand the implications, anyway. I hope.**

**I'd love to fix the fashion faux pas that some of you might observe from Kaleido Emerald's character design, but only so much could be made to create a character design that only exists within my head. I hope you understand what I was trying to get at, instead of barfing it up into the garbage pit of outdated fashion.**

**Either way, I'll be working on a few more school projects again. Don't expect a quick next chapter, but I'll try my best to add in the EXTRA 2 to tide you boys and girls for the embarassingly long update cycle.**

**(Oh hey, it worked out this time.)**


	9. Chapter 8 - School Grounds

**Well then. At least I got something out on time, eh? I would've felt much worse if I didn't get anything out by Christmastime, believe me. Enjoy.**

* * *

Issei was at a loss. She was sitting down on a fancy dinner table, at the fancy restaurant that she passed by on the way to school every now and then. Whenever she was on a rush and her dad was available to drive her to school, at least, he'd always take this road, always giving her an uncontested view of some of the tastiest food she had never tasted. Admittedly, she had never found the need to eat here before, though, her mother always having the foresight to have some kind of breakfast in the morning prepared before she would normally go to school. Plus, the food was really expensive. It was still a bit surreal to think about her actually entering in a place she had only seen as a myth, basically, but that's how the way things go now apparently. Of course, given that it was also the current Student Council's preferred gathering place for whatever reason, it almost seemed like she was destined to come here in the future no matter what.

She really shouldn't be feeling this way, she thought. But it's been barely a few days since she first befriended the girl in front of her, and her exceedingly eccentric sister -though, technically, it was only her sister that she had known for a few days, Sona was who she met today. She looked at the piece of paper that the restaurant staff had given her -she shall now refer it as a dish list-, laminated and showing pictures of the food they served, including varieties of Chinese and Korean that she didn't even know existed, some American stuff, European and even Pizza. It was basically all of the good stuff they could find in the world and stuffed it all into one single restaurant, and that was enough to make her inner Demon King (both literally and figuratively) salivate uncontrollably at the piece of paper presented before her.

She found herself really, really hungry, but all the food was so prohibitively expensive that ordering a single one of them -or more, a desperate voice in her mind pleads- would probably inconvenience Sona so much that she was thinking against ordering anything at all. The immaculate tastes tempted her, however. Her imagination led her thoughts of deep-fried tempura with the sauces glazing the topside, Korean barbeque cooking slowly on the built-in stove on her table, and the wide variety of sweets that would undoubtedly become her dessert. Her heart beat slowly but impactfully, each pump sending more and more bits of pleasure through her body as she imagined the heavenly tastes go down her throat, dribbles of saliva going down her chin. She was going so far as to put her hands on her face in ungraceful anticipation.

The rather disturbing sight brought Sona into a deep sweat, scooting just a bit further away from Issei. She sighed, wondering if it was really such a good idea to bring her to one of the higher-class restaurants in the City of Kuoh. She was considering the amount of money it would take to pay for a single meal, and the time span it may take to actually deliver it to them on time. There wasn't much she could actually do then, anyway. Since they were already there and all…

It was such a fortunate thing that the staff didn't have to bat an eye at the sight of the two of them in the premises, both of them in cosplay clothing and holding way too much money for their own good. The restaurant staff worked closely with her family in terms of business in the human world, so that meant special treatment for the landlord's daughter, basically. Which worked just fine for her.

She had to clarify that particular piece of information over and over again since Issei's humble background meant that she still didn't actually believe that a kid like her had that much money on hand. It was roughly 30K yen stuffed into her front pocket with a magical seal, mostly as her weekly allowance. And now she was going to use almost half of that to feed a very hungry, and newly minted magical girl. Quite literally for both of them, it seemed. How lovely.

It was pretty interesting to think about, if she could just disconnect the hungry predator sitting in front of her who was currently analyzing the quarry in silence. That which she was planning to hunt down and devour, with what she's learned about the past few days. It's not all too unrealistic for intense moments to make even her feel hungry after a full day's worth of practice. Issei's no exception, but why she only began to feel particularly hungry today rather than the days before was unknown to her.

She put a finger to her lips, and thought. Maybe her mother might just be that good of a chef, then. It's a bit of a stretch, sure, but certainly it must have been hell to think up the culinary skills that would help them in their endeavors. It was also a ridiculous proposition to consider but... Well, she may as well try to ask directly when she gets the chance.

She coughed into her hand, calling to her sister magical girl's attention. Issei stopped her ritual, looking like a deer on the headlights. Then she put herself into a position more appropriate for a young girl such as her, putting her legs on the ground and her hands on the desk. After that, she wiped the drool off her face, picked up the pink beret that fell onto the ground and put it on. It still didn't help her image whatsoever, considering the still wanting expression she could just see on her eyes, but it was a start.

There was a momentary pause. The two of them stared down each other as Sona tried her best to figure out something reasonable to break the awkward silence, but it was no use. They were shivering, ignoring the concerned looks of the people eating on the other tables.

She rubbed a hand behind her neck and sighed. Knocking on the table to call for Issei's attention once again, she called. "So, Issei… How are you doing? Is there anything wrong right now or…" Silence, and apparent apathy was all that was found. "Never mind." She sighed. Maybe she wasn't all too prepared for a conversation this time around, but at least she'll try. The look the other girl gave her was a bit concerning, with her eyes staring straight at her, judging her every being, waiting for the response that she was going to give. A response that she failed to deliver because of said judging eyes, in fact, and she felt disappointed that she could be shut down so easily by that.

Any attempts at further communication were halted the moment the waiter arrived to take their orders. Although she did try her best to give guidelines for Issei to consider what she should order, the earlier response of hers, the veritable lust for all thing's food related on the menu decided the answer for her. She'd just wait for Issei to finish telling the poor waiter to write everything that she wanted, and she'd reserve her concerns to herself. It was their business to keep, after all.

30 minutes later, the food arrived. In another 30, all of the food was eaten, bones included. The bill was roughly equivalent to 132 US Dollars when converted from Japanese Yen, which was very expensive, especially for a full course meal meant for a single girl. Sona looked at it in silence, and grudgingly took the money out of her pockets to hand to the Waiter.

After that massacre of her funds and the plates, she looks on at the satisfied Demon King, who was currently chipping away at a food particle stuck between her teeth and patting her somehow still flat belly. And worse yet, she didn't seem to change her body much at all. All of the food just disappeared for whatever reason in the black hole Issei called a stomach, and that was reason enough for Sona to despair.

They left the restaurant a little while afterwards, giving Issei enough time to let the wild call to her in the restroom. Walking by the sidewalk, Issei was a bit nervous. This was her first time going to Kuoh, and indeed, her new school for good. It had been years that she had been staying at her old one that going to a new one for reasons beyond her own ability to manipulate was a strange feeling, but at least she wasn't going to let herself down again.

It may have been kind of her fault that the incident happened in the first place, yes, but only because of the influence by that crazy bird girl. At the very least, staying there would have had absolutely no chances of her staying there without any problems, because as far as she could tell, the only reason she got away with becoming a whole 'nother person to the perspective of her classmates and teachers was because of her Jedi mind tricks. Besides, it was a fresh, new start with new potential friends, teachers and acquaintances. A blank slate wherein absolutely no one knew who she was except as either an eccentric crossdressing female elementary school student, or as a very effeminate male school student. In a sense, she was lying to herself and her friends just by going ahead with her stupid plan, it seemed.

Huh. Well, not like it matters now. She could see it through when it happens. As it is, all that she needed to feel was excitement and happiness. And it's all thanks to the magical girl right next to her, who was skipping happily across the sidewalk in a pretty fast pace. She wasn't sure what would've happened if she didn't meet either of them, and she would've been pretty sure it might've been very bad. Either way, new blank slate, she can work in a better impression to the school populace than she did with her previous school, yadda yadda, you get the idea.

Still. The point still stands, even if felt as if she went through this very same conversation multiple times before. How would they react? She was pretty sure that she could just as easily ask Sona on the way there, but she was a few dozen meters away from her already, so yelling at each other from this distance would probably cause some commotion. Yeah, better than nothing she hoped.

…

"Wait…" She looks back up and realizes very quickly that Sona was beginning to lose her completely. The clicking of her boots wouldn't even be heard of with normal ears, but with enhanced senses like hers, she could still hear her loud and clear. Her heartbeat skips, and she begins to prepare herself to run towards Sona and her stupid cosplay stick, sticking out like a sore thumb. And she set off, leaving behind a large dust cloud at her wake.

"Wait a second! Sona, wait for me!" Issei runs up to where Sona is, who had outran Issei during her inner monologue and slow walking. She was, after all, walking with her own brand of very fast fast-walking. She was a quarter of a mile away from her, and they just barely reunited with each other before Sona could take a right, the jerk. "Why did you just leave me behind there!? I could've gotten lost, I don't even know where the school is! I—"

"Shh, Issei. Now's not the time." Issei looked a tad bit miffed, but refused to respond. All she did was scowl a little and changed her pace to match Sona's own. Sighing deeply, she contemplates still if going ahead with this was a particularly good idea. The thoughts drift slowly away from their current situation as she thinks of more fantastical things, the thoughts that would typically enter the mind of a youth like him (well, you should get the idea) with all the nerdy stuff that such a thing would entail.

Not a single thought focused on her current attire, the distinct appearance catching the eye of most adults passing by, but that was mostly because she simply forgot she was wearing it in the first place. There was a distinct feeling of detachment going on here, but nothing too serious. For her part, as she walked along the sidewalk, the only thing she felt that mattered was the occasional, painful squishing on her belly as they went by, which reminds her that she didn't go home to eat lunch this time around. She only ever did that at school, which might mean that her parents would get worried, wonder what happened to her, she'd feel desperate, and…

Nah, she knows they'd understand. Either way, it's only a little while longer before she gets to the school, and all that she needs to know is why it's taking so long to get there. They started from the park, which was practically a halfway point, right? It has to be just a little longer, right?

"Hey, Issei. We're almost there." Sona's voice caught her off guard, and from their position she could see the academy in all of its glory. Standing tall and elegantly, the school looked more like a manor and house than a school than anything else in her opinion. Everything looked like an antique, with a certain degree of quality that guaranteed that she would at least have a good education here. Not that making her first impressions of a school based on their building was a good idea of course, but at least it meant that the people working there were quality, and just as old as the school building which meant actual experience.

Or something. She didn't really know where that line of thought was going to lead, but that was the best opinion she could make at the time. Well, it wasn't important, but it was probably very cynical. Whatever cynical meant, she thinks, since that's a word she only ever heard from the adults in the past...

They arrived at the school gates a little while after that, and from there Issei could bask in all of the school's glory. It was a lot fancier than what she would expect be as a school, with all the bustle and cleanliness, and some bells and whistles she didn't associate with a school. Although there were no classes for the rest of the week, dozens of students still went in and out of the premises, and here and there she could also see a school teacher walk by. The school was definitely much bigger than her older one, in many more ways than she could imagine.

Sona stood quietly along the side, letting Issei suck it all in. She had to admit, she felt much the same too when she first saw the building herself, but as it was, they needed to get going. First things first, she needed to get Issei to meet up with the Guidance Counselor to get her paperwork and have the basic rundown be done, then she could give her that tour around the school. She grabbed Issei's arm and dragged the girl away with her to the right room, though all Issei was capable of doing there was follow after her now sore and aching arm.

Issei and Sona walked down the hallways to the Guidance Office, while Sona gave a quick breakdown of the facilities that they passed by. Of particular note was an old, decrepit building in the distance that she could see. When she asked Sona about it, she responded, "Ah, that's the old school building. The school doesn't really use it right now, but a friend of mine has been talking about renovating it a little bit for their own uses apparently... I don't know what exactly what she meant by that, but I do see her go in and out of sometimes anyway." That was all the information she received from that, and they ran off afterwards. Despite that, she couldn't really shake off the feeling of being watched.

Just as they were about to reach the offices, Issei felt something cold go through her. Her feet started shaking and she felt a strong sense of anxiety just by looking at the suspiciously open doorway. She slowed down her pace, wanting to reach after Sona to make her stop and reconsider but failing, just in time to see her open the door. When the door opened and she looked through the small crack on the wall, she saw someone particularly important to her life. Almost instantly she contemplated about running away from the school entirely and never looking back, but she didn't have the luxury to choose.

Sitting speaking with one of the teachers was her mother, mirthful and happy, apparently talking about some embarrassing childhood memories about her from the muffled voices that she could hear outside. Off to her side she could also see her father, reading through an old newspaper with a small cup of coffee in front of him on the glass desk. She wouldn't be so embarrassed about her parents, if it weren't for a cold breeze making her acutely aware that she was wearing a skirt and blouse. The very same skirt and blouse she wore for that Halloween party a few years back with Shidou, where Shidou went as the boy and she practically volunteered to dress up as the girl.

The familiarity of the scene, with the obvious fact that her father went out of his way to set up everything for her just in case she needed an actual magical girl outfit for whatever reason, and with how obnoxiously irritating it could be to explain to her parents why she went ahead with it anyway… It would be a very painful scene to go through. But how could she hide from the problem when the problem was practically staring right at her face to face? It was insane, and all she could think of then was to figure out a smart way to hide from her parents without making it all too obvious.

Slowly, she turned around just as Sona called her parents and the guidance counselor who were telling them the presence of Issei's daughter. She walked heavy but silent steps on the paved floor, trying to avoid making them acutely aware of her presence within the facility to no avail. A moment after, she tried to leave the building up until Sona called her to come inside, just as she tried to step back to twist her torso facing the other direction. She froze and looked back, seeing Sona and her mother stare right at her, her mother having a very strained face with a smile that promised death while just behind her stood her father, sweating bullets.

She smiled weakly, and Sona palmed her face, and responded, "Don't worry Missus Hyoudou, I'll talk to you about it later. Issei, could you come over here! It's your parents, they went here before you!" Issei nodded blankly and turned around, walking to the Guidance office stoically, not quite ready to face the music, and resisting the urge to soil her panties.

On the doorframe, mother and father looked at each other funny. The mother stared at the Father, whose only immediate concern then was the hungry tiger. Issei's mother, still flat faced, responded in return. Her head craned mechanically, and instantly her mother goose instincts activated, causing her to respond to her husband's treachery. "We're going to talk more about this in detail later. Right, dear husband?" Issei's father blankly reacted to the remark, still processing the fact that the (mostly) joking clues he had left behind in the house were taken seriously. He nodded, refusing to dig too deep into the topic.

They sat down on the comfy couches inside the Guidance Office and waited. They had her sign some papers, writing everything down as needed and so on. The one thing that she managed to avoid having to answer was the topic of her gender, seeing how the whole scheme decided upon was that they would go out of their way to promote the incredibly dumb scheme for the sake of doing so. The hope was that the student body would either take it as it was, thinking that Issei was simply that girly and being more of the pretty type of boyish. A little bit of both, androgyny that would allow the eventual flow of male and female students. Or otherwise, more than likely it seemed, they'd figure it out almost immediately, but won't dig too deep into it because they'd figure that some incredibly elaborate and pointless stuff was happening in the background.

Point was, they only announced the transition to a dual gendered school a week ago, which was something they were planning already, but hastened in order to accommodate certain particular individuals. They had estimated the likelihood of the boys becoming equal in number to the girls to happen within a decade, primarily because of the potential stigma sticking to a school that would keep new students from enrolling. Technically speaking they wouldn't announce it outwardly, but allow male students if they applied. A case of, "You didn't ask, dear," but applied to an entire school. This would bring great trouble to the school at the end of the day, but they could compensate eventually.

For what it was worth, the fact that they were still going ahead with this and with the full support of the school faculty at that was hilarious to consider. For Sona, anyway. Issei stayed out of the festivities to avoid embarrassing herself.

Even if they found out about the scheme and wanted to out it for whatever reason, they had countermeasures in place. That was all that they needed to know, at least, but Issei had an inkling of the idea that they wanted in place. Mostly hypnosis related, since it worked for her old school.

They've laid out everything they needed for school, a prototype of the uniform that they needed her to wear for all three stages of school plus female variants in case she needed or wanted to, and some other miscellaneous stuff. The textbooks were already provided for, all the payments done by Sona's family in order to procure a strong independent ally. And that was it, for the most part.

They did ask however, why Issei was prancing around in the magical girl costume despite her explicit request to be recognized as a boy for the next few years. If she actually wanted to do that, then what was the point of dressing up in that then? It was illogical. And most importantly, it was dumb, because just a few hours earlier they saw a post on the internet of Issei in the very same outfit walking around the streets of Kuoh with Sona. It wasn't very surprising to see Sona there since she was old news in town now, but with Issei by her side and cosplaying? An unknown with a popular kid? Yeah, that would actually raise too many eyebrows.

Issei stayed silent throughout the whole discussion of the thing looking calm despite the uncomfortable conversation going about her, but inside was a completely different story. Inside, she was screaming to the heavens, realizing the implications that were put out there for her to consider. She didn't necessarily consider the potential catastrophe that might've happened as a result. Though catastrophe may have been a strong word to pertain to such a thing, if she actually wanted to hide it as an incredibly elaborate secret then she should have been well aware that some people might figure it out immediately. Fact was that she wasn't wearing anything to hide on her face or whatever so they might still recognize her from wherever the hell they say her on the street, or in one of the pictures that they uploaded on the internet.

Or that was the idea at least, according to the counselor. In any case, as much as she wanted to respond, there wasn't much of an idea that she could put out as a remedy or solution, so she was mostly at an impasse. There were solutions pinned here and there again, but nothing that was solid. A lot of people would recognize then, there wasn't much else they could do that wouldn't incur unwanted attention, and so forth. So the solution then was... to do absolutely nothing. To do nothing remotely direct, that is.

They'd recognize that there was a really big breach on privacy, they shouldn't ask, and that Issei simply enjoyed cosplaying as his favorite characters, which was technically true anyway. Wouldn't diminish the rumors, of course, and the potential stigma directed against her, but it was something to work with for now. In fact, they even had the very same Halloween picture of Issei and Shidou modified to look like Issei's current form, but it was mostly the facial features that were changed since that was all they really needed to fix. After all, when the question was brought up, Sona came to her defense, explaining thoroughly about Issei's attempt in making her happy just earlier. She elaborated on the magical girl getup, how she knocked herself out trying to give her big introduction, and the help that Issei gave to her. It was all still very stupid, but when Sona saw the empty looking eyes pleading for help, she just had to.

Issei had to ask though. "Why isn't it such a big deal that you're wearing a magical girl outfit, but it is for me?" They all gave her blank stares, and Issei scratched the back of her neck nervously. "Y-Yeah, I know that I'm a special case, but you'd think that she'd have caught some people in the eye. In fact, I don't think that any of the people we passed by made it such a big deal except for me, a-and they only noticed me but not her and... Oh. That was the point wasn't it?" They all nodded. "Yeah, I figured as much," she says, looking down, slightly dejected.

Sona smiled at Issei with the best impression of a big sister that she could create without basing off her own big sister, and responded. "Well, you aren't wrong, Issei-kun. Almost everyone is unfazed by me wearing this because I've been wearing this for much longer." She adjusts her glasses, by which Issei notes that the lenses have fogged up like the ones she's seen in anime. "In fact, I've been scouting out the town as a magical girl myself for almost just as long, both mock and literal. It's something, and also something I expect you to follow up as one of my subordinates! Do you understand me, Issei!" Her glasses take on a much brighter shine, enough for her father to move an arm up to block the light going his way somehow.

She puts them down, and asks. "Any other questions?" Issei's mother raises her hand, and Sona acknowledges it. "Yes, Missus Hyoudou?" The mother coughs into her hand and responds.

"Is that the other reason why Issei is wearing that? Because I remember my dear Husband Goro going out of his way to find the old dusty thing, stuffing it inside a chest, and digging a hole inside of our garden to give Issei something to wear. To dress up as a member of a troupe." All eyes went to him, who sputters, "I thought it was a good idea at the time! And besides, Issei was enough of a magical girl as is when we first met your older sister, so it came to my mind automatically when we were looking for stuff for her to wear." The staring stopped. "Thank you."

Sona coughs once more, and responds, albeit a little forced. "Yes, I do kind of expect Issei to come join me in my missions across the country as support. I've made it my mission to do justice, and prevent evildoers from getting away with their crimes. That isn't a joke, I'd like to actually do that. We'll be superheroes. Vigilantes. I'm sure you get the idea?" Sona smiled, but Issei didn't respond. "It won't be politically motivated, don't worry. I won't even try to manipulate you into doing something you wouldn't want." She smiles. "Either way, I do need both you and your parents' permission to go ahead with this, because it's all optional at the end of the day. If you would, Ma'am?"

Miki Hyoudou sat down in contemplation. She looked at her husband, who nodded, after which she looked at Sona straight in the eye. "Issei might have always been the type of child to help people no matter who they are, but... Can you guarantee her health?" Sona considered this, and responded.

"Not necessarily ma'am but," she put her palm up to let herself speak. "We do have countermeasures for that as well. Healing magic, fixing her up, the like, and I've already been told by my sister that she's a lot tougher than she looks. She can heal herself a lot faster than I could, for one thing, and that says a lot." She shifts uncomfortably. "It might be a bit irresponsible to just rely on regenerative abilities that haven't been fully tested yet, but it's the best solution we have."

Issei's mother looks conflicted herself, and even if she wants nothing more than to have her stay at home and be at peace (lol reword this), she knows very well that wouldn't be what Issei wants. It would be a very big waste of her abilities. Abilities to help people, almost to the point of selflessness, but not quite as Issei would seek glory for herself at the same time. Such is life, but she has made her choice already. She looks at her husband one last time, and they both respond. "We accept... Only if Issei accepts as well."

The gazes shift to Issei once again, who feels the pressure building up on her, her gaze now moving downwards to her twiddling fingers. Would it really be such a good idea, risking her life every other day saving people who might not even know they've been saved in the first place? Maybe, maybe not, but she wasn't all that ready to give up on the opportunity regardless. It wasn't what she would've wanted, it wasn't what he wanted either, so what was the best choice here? Her teacher did say after all that opportunities like these don't come so easily, so it's ultimately the choice between not going for it and having a fairly mundane lifestyle where not much had changed from before, or otherwise, and living the life of excitement that she's been looking for so long.

She's almost tempted to leave it all behind, turn a new leaf and simply use the Sitri family's generosity to get what she wants in life, but that... that wasn't fun. That isn't why she was chosen to get this Master-Servant thing in the first place, and what would she do then without all the hustle of something like this? She didn't really know, and in fact, she'd imagine it to be very boring indeed, and legitimately dangerous. What use would her powers be if she didn't flex her muscles every now and then? She wouldn't be able to protect her parents, her friends. She sighed, thinking it through.

She's mostly solidified her choice on the matter at this point, but there was just one last person to ask their opinion for. But Nobu hasn't responded to anything for the past few hours at all, so what was she going to do to get her to respond? Walk straight into her mind and bash her in the head? Honestly, that was stupid even for her. Almost instantly after saying that, however, she whited out to the horror of the surrounding spectators, eyes rolling inward and slamming the table, and she suddenly found herself somewhere else.

Inside her mind, she 'popped open' a door to her inner mindscape. Opening it, she enters the room, looking around the fractured replica of her home. She found the person she was looking for in the living room, and she stared at the demon king sitting on the seiza position while facing the television with her eyes closed. The television itself was powered on, but nothing but static was on the screen. But she would guess that the television represented what she would normally see as the outside world, or something like that. Sighing deeply, a large bead of sweat falls off her cheek into the floor, which she notes disintegrated almost instantly.

Walking over to her, she pokes on Oda Nobunaga's face. "Oi, Nobu." She was hoping that she was wrong the entire time and she didn't actually fall asleep during a very important meeting. Nobunaga's face falls to the side, and she sighs even deeper, shaking her side to side to no avail. "Oi, Dairokuten Maou, wake up." Sighing harder, she coughs into her hand, three times, the third time even building up some phlegm in her throat that she runs towards the restroom sink to spit out. Palming her face, she thinks of something cute and obnoxious to shout at Nobu, and a lightbulb literally flashes above her head. Cupping her hands near Nobu's right ear, she shouts as loudly as she can. "Nobu-chan, asobou yooo~~!"

No avail. She groans even deeper, and stomps on the floor like a child with a tantrum. She did resist the urge to stretch her hair like some kind of immature school girl at least. Waiting for a bit, she notices something interesting on the side.

She sees a half uneaten cup of ramen to the side, noting that it still felt very hot despite existing inside a metafictional space (not necessarily her exact wording, but you get the picture), and decides, in a move of desperation, to throw it at Nobu's face. Although it stuck to one side of her face with the noodles and soupy, salty broth slowly dripping down her side, nothing actually happened to her, not even a twitch. Frustration building up, she shouted at her, shook her even more, and even punched her, still, to no avail. Her irritation has reached such a boiling point that she was almost crying, but that wasn't all that was left just yet. Taking one step backwards, she considered her options and moved to scratch the back of her head until she looked at her open palm. She readied her stance, and prepared for the bitch slap of a lifetime.

Scratching one side of her face, and wiping very greasy sweat (what she thinks it is, at least) on the other with her sleeve, Oda Nobunaga yawned loudly. "Hrmm... what? Issei, what are you doing here...? Huh?" It was at that exact moment that Issei was to slap her, that Nobu decided to wake up. Unfortunate.

"Hmm?" SLAP. "Ooogh!?"

"OF ALL THE DAMN TIMES YOU DECIDE TO FALL ASLEEP YOU USELESS SPIRIT, IT'S NOW!? YOU IDIOOTTT!" The power of the slap was enough to push Nobunaga right outside of the conveniently airconditioned (they don't actually have an airconditioner yet) room, right into the endless white void outside. Nobunaga blew right past the flimsy imaginary wall, and was sent reeling at the uncharacteristically tsundere approach to her nap. Her torso stood up, and she processed what had just happened, with her gloved hand rubbing the stinging portion right where she slapped her.

Rubbing it still, she asked, in a confused tone. "I-Issei...? Are you alright...? I mean, are you feeling alright?" The angry clone wearing a magical girl outfit didn't reply, still stuck in the pose she had left herself in the moment of the strike. She stood up still, and pushed a bang out of the way of her eyes. Breathing in deeply, confusion sets in as she looks at the hand she slapped Nobu a few yards away with. It was obvious that she was incensed, but she didn't normally resort to violent action like what she had just done, so she's asking herself in the inside what she had just done.

Running at her, she carries Nobu on one side, shouting. "Nobu! Are you feeling alright? I'm so sorry, I didn't know what I was doing, I did that by instinct!" Still dazed, Nobu gave Issei a blank look. She sighs, and responds. "We can talk about that later, what did you want to say?" Issei smiles weakly, and begins to explain.

Moments afterward...

"So you're telling me that the Sona girl you met earlier wants to form a team with you?" A nod. "Like, a tokusatsu style team up? Flashy poses and all that?" She gestures something with her arms, to which Issei palms her face.

"Maybe not exactly like that, but it's close... Look, you know what I'm wearing right now, right?" She gestures to the flashy white dress, and Nobu nods. "It's a magical girl troupe. I'm not sure what Sona's planning exactly besides fulfilling her middle school fantasies, but it's a lot more serious than that. Because for one thing, it lets me go around the country fighting crime and keeping the status quo, or whatever she meant by that. Uh... Being a superhero and stuff." Jazz hands to represent waving and portals was done, convenient. "Portals and transportation were already provided for so I don't have to go to wherever I'm needed physically with a car or your body's superspeed." She rubs the back of her head nervously. "It's... something like that at least, and I'm still undecided in that regard, but..."

"You want my own honest opinion about it?" A stare, then a nod. "Well, why don't we go for it? After all, I saw another spark in your eyes that you didn't quite have before, Issei. Something's telling me that you're going to gain a lot out of this on your end." Issei's eyes moved downwards after that, and Nobu followed after. It was a magical girl stick, reminding them both of the ridiculousness of their current situation. "Well... For the most part at least." A chuckle.

"Either way, you have to tell them something, somehow. So uh... Go out there, kid. Take care of yourself." Issei nodded, gladly following after the advice.

Her vision whited out once again, and she found herself inside one of the school's faculty offices; right where she was a while back. Back in the inner sanctum, Nobunaga was witness to the violent dispersal of light that represented Issei's consciousness inside the inner world, and sighed. She looks at the broken down wall, and the mess left behind at her wake, and especially the pungent smell of instant ramen. She stands up, and with a flash of light she was now dressed in a maid outfit, broom included. "Well, I may as well clean this up while I still can. Haven't cleaned up after myself in a while, at least. Hehehe..." She whistles while she mops up the mess of imaginary ramen inside the metafictional space of Issei's mind.

Issei rubs her eyes of all the sand left behind in them, and opens her eyes. Seeing the concerned looks of the people she was just talking to a while back made her shiver, so she elected not to ask. She takes her hand up to silence them for a little while longer, while she processes her current situation. A minute later, she was done. Now that she's done, however, she can let them be, so she puts her arm down to let them speak.

Her mother spoke first. "Issei... Are you feeling alright? You... fell asleep just as we were about to ask you what you felt about it... The proposal, that is." Her mother slowly passes a cup of water to Issei, who accepts it and drinks it eagerly. "If you're not feeling up to going for it like what she asked you, it's fine but..."

"No, mother, it's fine." She breathes out, and smiles. "I just had a talk with myself a little bit, no biggie." The smile turns into a grin. "I'm going for it. I accept."

"But are you sure it's alright-" Her father was cut off by her, Issei. "Yes, it's totally fine. I think that a certain somebody inside of me is okay with it, after all. Has something to do with that smudged up magic circle at least, and that's all I could say about it." The cryptic nature of her last sentence didn't fix their worries any, but they chose not to push it.

A little while afterwards, they were done. All the papers signed, registrations and so on completed, done, and ready for the next week. It might have been a bit too quick to just jump ship and move to a different school this early in the semester, but there wasn't much that they could do with the old school being taken down for the rest of the year because of terrorist threats and inherent building problems. Plus, it would have been much harder to stay in contact if they weren't close to each other anyway, so there was a practical purpose behind this.

Issei's parents left the school campus to the parking lot before Issei could, leaving the two of the children on their own. Sona made sure to show where most of the important rooms were afterwards, where her classroom would be, and so on. She chose not to ask what kind of role she and her family had over the school, considering the tremendous influence she seemed to be exerting despite her young age. It was pretty easy to guess, anyway, and all it took was taking a look at the way the student body still at school this week looked at her. It was interesting to see a senpai almost ten years older than them bowing to her in submission.

They passed by the old school building one last time after they were all done, but something caught her eye. In the distance, she could just barely decipher a girl with red hair staring at her, and she stopped momentarily to stare back. The girl smiled the moment she saw who she was walking with. Just as Issei was about to holler, Sona interrupted. "She's a friend of mine. The friend of mine I was talking about earlier... She might be acting a little cryptic right now, but she's normally more straightforward than this." Sona's eyes shifted nervously as she rubs the back of her head, and continues. "I guess no one sent her the message yet, huh? Well, my bad..."

She moved back along the path, and gestured for Issei to follow. "We can give you proper introductions when the right time comes, alright? Just... maybe not this week, but I promise you that it will happen at least next week." Issei looked back at the window to see nothing, the occupant having seemingly left while she spoke. Moving her head to face Sona's, she nods, and follows her back to the parking lot.

They said their goodbyes, as Issei entered the car and closed the door. Sona still waved a little bit afterwards, her silhouette fading back in the distance. She stared back at the rear window for a little while longer until she faced forward, then lied down with her head facing the ceiling.

"Was the rest of your day okay, dear?" Her mother asked, looking at the backseat. Issei smiled. "It was okay. I had lots of fun." She whistled a little ditty, then stopped, taking the time to look at her mother straight in the face and smile. Miki Hyoudou did the same in return.

"Ah, that's good then." The car went into silence, the only sound coming from the almost silent radio and the cars buzzing around them. Issei blinked a little, and went to sleep. She would be sure to deserve some measure of rest, at least. She was really tired.

Her mother, still looking at the young girl, sighed, and faced the windshield once more. It was a long day for sure, and she wouldn't blame Issei for wanting some shuteye before they arrived home. She settled by just increasing the volume of the radio a little bit. The song was one she was familiar with during her youth.

There was just one last something bugging her mind, though. Looking back on the sleeping child, she poked on her cheek, saying, "Issei, Issei, I have to tell you something." It was enough to catch both the attention of her husband and the child in question. After waking her up sufficiently with Issei facing her with slightly lidded eyes, she smiled cheekily and asked her a cheeky question.

"How was your first day wearing nothing but a skirt, Issei?" It might have been mean, in retrospect, but the growing blush in Issei's face along with her scattered attempts to justify it was worth it in the end, she thinks. All the father could do was focus on the road, ignoring the chuckles of the wife and flustered defense of his child in the backseat.

Either way, this was the life that they were looking for in a long while now. He had no other options but to smile, and why wouldn't he? This was happiness. Something they've been missing for quite some time. He smirks, and decides to laugh at the shenanigans behind him. This brought his daughter's attention to him, who could only sputter uncontrollably at his apparent acts of transgressions. Weakheartedly punching the driver's seat was all that she could do, but that was okay.

He found the opportunity perfect to ask one question, though. And it was definitely relevant to the current situation. At the closest red light, he had 30 seconds to do this so... He asked, straight to her face. "Are you happy right now, Issei?" It was an honest and simple question. But it was enough to throw Issei's frustrations away from them.

Issei considered it, her anger no longer clouding her judgement. The car moved along the road slowly, and she considered the question with the current situation. With what she felt, with what it was like, essentially. She stood up and moves to one side of the car, taking in the view, and smiles.

"I am, dad. I am." She gives the driver one big toothy smile through the rear view mirror, and that was that. The rest of the trip was silent.

**If anyone's wondering how mummy and daddy dear found time to head to Kuoh Academy, their respective workplaces each had a convenient gas leak incident. Those things are happening more frequently as the years progress, honestly...**

**Yeah, I got nothing else to say except that I am teetering on a balance of entertaining you people and dying because of shitty school grades. Such is life. Oh well. Enjoy your goddamn omake. Which I'll expand more in the future, don't worry, but I was getting impatient at the time to get it out before 12 O'Clock in the evening hit, so...**

* * *

It was Christmas Eve in the Hyoudou household, and they were to host a small Chrismas party for just the family and some guests. Issei's friends don't really have the ability to celebrate it normally, but they still passed by to give Issei gifts. A big pile of presents, the boxes stacked from the bottom to top of all shapes and sizes were pushed to the side to provide some space. It came from people all across the country, when someone passed the message by that it was all thanks to Issei and her magical girl team of herself and herself that had done the job.

Sona refused any sort of recognition or credit for her part in the job, but that was it for the most part. She stopped wearing the stupid outfit regularly anyway, for both practical reason involving hidden identities and her growing maturity. It was after all, the first thing that Issei felt tempted to ask when she stopped by to say hello. She was wearing 3 layers of clothing for goodness sake, and the question was enough to make her flustered enough to take off one.

She still wore it during routine patrols out of habit, of course, but otherwise it was just an old memory. She took a quick peek inside, analyzed the wards for any potential problems, accepted Issei's Parent's offer to a cup of hot chocolate, then left almost immediately after. She left behind two red boxes, one credited to her and another credited to her sister. They said goodbye after that, and she was gone almost instantly.

Issei sighs and closes the door. She walks back to the living room, sits down on the couch, and puts her feet over a big bowl of hot water. Still shivering after her earlier blunder that was falling almost entirely in a frozen lake, she sips a cup of lukewarm coffee she had left in the coffee table 30 minutes ago. She breathes in and out once again, and sneezes on a piece of tissue. She pulls out her PSP that she had hidden within the couch, and opened up the game she had been playing before all the disturbances happened in succession. Just as she was about to open a boss room, however, another knock on the door happened.

She refused to budge, moving wasn't an option in her current field of work, not when she was done with school for now. Another knock, and she was feeling the chills, slowly sipping on the lukewarm liquid chocolate that she had made specifically for her, and for her. And when another happened, her mother shouted from another room. "Issei, I'm still busy cooking the food for our dinner later, could you answer that for me?" Evidently, she didn't want to, but if she wanted to avoid any other disturbances she may as well do it now.

She stood up, groaning loudly and painfully, and waddled towards the front door. She looked through the peephole and saw that the person behind it was just a delivery boy holding a package in his hands. Sighing in disbelief, she opened the door and impatiently asks. "What is it?" The delivery boy smiled and responded, "Package for a Miss Issei Hyoudou. Please just sign here and here to receive it."

It took a few moments to realize exactly what the delivery boy just referred to her as, but just as she was about to call him back, he was gone. Groaning in exasperation, she closes the door with a slam and rips the package a new one, and stares blankly at it. It was a book, and a piece of paper underneath the cover was staring directly at her. She stared a bit longer, and took the piece of paper on one hand to read it. It was in English, but at least her markings were good in that regard.

It was a handwriting she was kind of familiar with, but... well, it read something alright. That something was, "Read carefully, Issei. Don't miss a mark." She raised an eyebrow at the cryptic message and sighs, tossing the piece of cardboard somewhere else she didn't really care about. She looked at it and yawning deeply, she could see that it was a light novel of sorts, and momentarily she wonders what all the hubbub was about. Scanning the cover, she was in awe, and wondered what kind of awesome little gift she got for Christmas. A new promising series was something to celebrate with all of the unimaginative Isekai genres and whole wish fulfillment stuff she kept seeing in the book store.

She looked at the cover once more, and frowned. It was an awesome setpiece, but there was something particularly familiar about the main antagonist in the background, or at least, someone who appeared to be the main antagonist. On the foreground was a blonde haired girl wearing a blue haori slashing at the fourth wall, and in the background was a long haired demoness with a really cool hat and long, black hair. What was so bad about that? She reminded her a lot of Oda Nobuna from that old series that was named after her, and that was only because of all the muskets that were floating behind her.

Right. Oda Nobuna... Oda... Nobuna.

She breathes in and panic starts to settle in, beginning by shaking her feet silly. She looks at the title of the story, and realization settles in. It read, "Strange Tales of the Imperial Holy Grail War", and the last three words were all that she needed to know that something was very, very wrong. She took the book with her and ran upstairs, ostensibly to wake both herself up and the sleeping magic wand that she conveniently uses to whack people silly nowadays. Dialing a particular person's number in the phone, she calls it, as she hastily changes to her military uniform.

When the dial tone stopped ringing, she took it to one ear and settled it there while still pulling her pants up. "Shoona, we hab a pruvlem. Come to my haus as soon as yuo can, preass."

"Wait, Issei- what!? You sound horrible, you didn't sound that sick earlier?" The snow storm outside was deafening, so much that Sona had to shout into the phone speaker. "Issei, Issei!"

"My flu shtarted achting uhp in the wrong taym, sorry, jusss... Come by, I have something to show you... *sniff*" She disconnected the call. And she knocked on the closet door, calling unto Kaleidostick Emerald's help.

She sat down, and whimpered nervously. She takes a quick look around her and sighs, letting the Kaleidostick to settle onto her hands.

"What did you wish for, Mistress Hyoudou?" Still palming her face in pain, she points at the book in front of her. The Kaleidostick looked at Issei confusingly, then stared at the light novel. A moment later, and it shouted. "Holy mackarel, this could become a mess!" Issei could only agree.

Issei felt nervous. That wasn't something that could be easily said or done about her, but in that short moment she was actually nervous. She was holding a very special book indeed. One that could make it or break it for her, and that wasn't a good sign. She sighs, wondering how she could get out of this mess if it truly was going to be printed all across the country...

It did read Fate Franchise, though, so she guessed that whatever Nasu cooked up this time was fairly standard for the multiverse. She hoped that would stay the case though. Her inner thoughts were cut off by a knock on her door, and the twisting of a knob. On the other side of the door was Sona, who was looking pretty worried, and Rias, who was holding a gift on one hand and her purse in the other with a facial expression she couldn't decipher because of the scarf covering half of her face.

"What did you need us for, Issei?"

_To be continued. Hopefully._

* * *

**Oh hey, Fate/Type Redline hype. It's a pretty awesome first chapter, I have to say. I'd really rather that they had kept the old all-star cast, but oh well. Nazis being beaten up in Imperial Japan is something I'll be looking forward to regardless.**

**Nobu's debut in the first chapter gave me honest chills, geeze. Take away the goofy-ass setting of the GudaGuda events and Koha-Ace and she's honestly one of the most chilling servants in the whole Nasuverse. I'm really looking forward to the way things develop.**

**This is still canon, by the way. I know how meta it is, but think of it this way. Think of it as a certain jackass NEET wizard's Christmas gift to spook them into submission. Or something like that, I don't bloody know, I gave you an unfinished product so that I wouldn't have to think anymore. Christ.**

**Till next time, then.**

**(I tried, at least. It took me a while to notice that I was rewriting a DocX file, though. Gosh darn it.)**


	10. Chapter EXTRA 2

**An omake hour isn't ideal as a new update, but it's pretty important to let you all know that I'm actually alive and making the story still. This update comes with 2 things, actually. One, is this chapter. Second, is a whole bunch of rewriting all the way to the 9****th**** chapter. I'm actually surprised I finished either of these, considering I had plans to intervene with EXTRA no. 2 all the way back in October and November.**

**Either way, I hope you enjoy this edition of turning Issei into one-to-one clones of sexy historical and mythical figures. That was the plan at first, but I forgot what I was going for again. Next main story chapter is still up in the air for the meantime, but hopefully you'll see it just a little later. As it is, however, I brought in 2 canon side stories into the fold as well to fill in the gaps and tide you over.**

**Side Story 4: **Eight Flowers

They were a picture-perfect couple. Coming straight out of nowhere to confess to the local village idiot, and yet they turned out a lot better than anticipated. Kissing and chatting together so wholesomely, it was almost smothering. Almost too saccharine.

Of course, that wasn't totally the case. It had to happen to him. Out of all the women he had to start dating, she was the kind of girl who would stab him in the face for the slightest bit of infidelity, what with the glowing yellow spear poking through his cheeks right now. He had not much to say at all, his mutilated body being totally unable to speak, or breath, at this point.

As he lay dying in the ground, his blood soaked the ground in a large pool gathering all around his body, coating very part of him that had yet to be covered in a thick coat of his gore. SPLAT, his intestines sounded as they smacked into the ground, and he shook violently. He imagined multiple things as they went by, even as the girl he had trusted with his life left.

She came into his mind. The one who he was imagining, or thought was imagining, was of that one girl. The beauty with crimson hair.

She who had been called to be contracted, was called in by the boy to be saved. She had other plans to consider her next move at the time, but this time she felt that she had to intervene herself. His destiny would, and should be decided from this moment forwards.

"So you were the one who called me." A whisper tore through the wind. Issei's eyes widened slightly, even as his strength failed him.

Suddenly, someone appeared in front of him, red sparks going through the evening wind. She spoke to him, the girl he had his eyes on this entire time. He had not much to say, however, as he lacked the ability to do so in the first place.

"Looks like you're dying. Your wound... oh my, looks like something interesting was happening here. So you're the one they had targeted... Truly, this is intriguing."

She's laughing as if she found something legitimately interesting. Indeed, she coolly went through his being, and observed him all around. His heartbeat was beating strong still, despite the damage done to him. Was he being healed?

"If you're dying then I'll take it. Your life, that is. From now on, you'll live only for me." Her voice was beautiful to his ears, soothing his broken soul. Whatever bargain she was offering, he would take it. Anything to see his family again. Anything.

However, for a moment it felt as if another person had arrived. She froze, and a cold chill went through her as her eyes bounced back and forth around her upon feeling a great ray of mana beaming through their general area. "Who are you!? What do you want with us!" She immediately went and attempted to set up defensive wards around her as she prepared for impact.

The other magic circle, conveniently painted underneath the tiles, glowed, and bright glow covered the entire park. The girl who had only just arrived had been frozen in time, right in the middle of her defensive position. In her place as negotiator, another girl had arrived in a flash of light, wearing a white cloak and holding in her right hand a long red spear with 6-pronged edges to stick to a person once impaled. On her left she held a bronze katana, looking no less dangerous than the other with her own niche of martial arts.

"Do you yet wish to live?" A distant voice asked. Healing energies pointed towards him, allowing the otherwise completely dead boy to deliriously move his eyes to a bright figure to his side, her figure almost angelic compared to the fetishistic and downright evil appearance of his traitorous girlfriend. She looked at him with a smile, which would be otherwise completely welcoming if not for the total lack of empathy in her face. It was almost robotic.

"Or are you willing to lay down your arms and die in the Buddha's embrace?" Her face froze for a moment, then afterwards she chuckled, realizing something. Taking the time to look to the side, where the girl had been frozen, she continued. "Though I have my doubts that even that would last in this scenario. The girl has her intentions for you, you know, binding you to a contract for nigh aeternum."

"It's your choice at the end of the day, boy. Eternal servitude to a devil, or eternal bindings to the God of War?" She smiled even harder, a tinge of malice going through her entire being. It disturbed him to no end, but... He had to choose.

Normally, his choice would have always been to take his chances with the Crimson haired beauty, forever locking the two together as devil and her servant, but this time he had another option. In the countless number of realities that existed across the universe, another option would almost never be considered. But of course, here she was.

Even in his banged-up shape, his head slowly turned to the strange, hooded figure. He slowly raised his index finger, blinking slowly. His tears slowly fell as he fell unconscious on the spot.

Her facade, covered under her hood, rose to face the finger pointing at her still. She smiled, one part genuine, and another part smug, as she sealed their contract as master and servant. The unique characteristics of their contract are to be skipped over as you would probably already get the idea, so on with the show. "Very well," she began. "I am the Servant Lancer, of the Eightfold Blossom as I have called myself a few times before. But you should know that you could always call me-"

"WAKE UP, WAKE UP! IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO KISS YOU!" It was a Tsundere-voiced alarm clock, but not once did it wake up its owner in the right and proper away. Rather, said owner appeared to have interpreted the events of the previous night as a nightmare induced by the disturbing amounts of hentai and anime merchandise that he uses to get off most of the time. Yes, the alarm counts.

"Hrrmm..." Issei Hyoudou hummed as he slowly woke up, unable to totally stave off all forms of sleep still lurking around his mind. He shook his head twice, the second time after smacking the offending noise with a loud bang and fell off his bed just afterwards.

He drifted off to sleep just afterwards, trying his best to avoid dreaming of crazy women killing him again. He faced down, still doing his best to ignore the ringing sound banging on his ears like a drum, and failing. Loud steps came up the stairs as both his father and mother banged on his door to wake him up.

"Wake up, Ise! Ise!" She shouted, making their displeasure quite clear to both parties. She attempted to pull him up from the floor, but failed to do so as Issei Hyoudou attempted to scramble himself up. Father looked to the side, still disappointed at the sound of his alarm's snooze sound.

As Issei sat up, he shook himself awakeand looked back at his parents. "I know that ma, I'm up now! Jeez..." And yet, he blinked, confusingly so, as he tried to process her parents' expressions.

Blinking even more, he raised a brow. "Uh, is there something wrong with my face?" They froze dead on their tracks, as they both chuckled nervously.

"Y-Yes Issei, just... Take a look at this." The mother said, taking a quick snapshot with her smartphone. She turned it around for Issei to see clearly, and Issei didn't know what to think at first.

Sure, there was his face. It looked a bit chubbier than before, but then again he was eating a lot lately without all too much exercise... Then there was a bit of some sharper facial features, which he could probably blame on puberty and his father's genes; he looked pretty plain either way though. And lastly, his hair was a bit longer with some white signalling that he might be getting stressed out too much.

"What's so bad about that, Ma? It just looks like the closing stages of puberty to me..." Mother shook her head, pointing at something more distressing.

"Not only that, Issei, look! Look up between your eyebrows! And more than that, look at your eyes!"

"Eh?" In closer inspection, it seemed as if his mother was right. There was a little blackish-brown tuft of hair poking out right in the middle, but what was so bad about that? But then he moved his gaze to his eyes, and saw exactly what the problem was now. Circling around the pupil and lining his sclera were circles, concentric from the middle. But more than that,

"EHH!? WHY ARE MY EYES SUCH A CREEPY SHADE OF YELLOW!?" And indeed, the combination of factors meant that despite still being recognizably Issei Hyoudou, Issei Hyoudou was even less Issei Hyoudou for once in his short lifetime. A little more feminine, leaning on a little girlier look

His parents, mind you, had not much to say, and could only sigh in discomfort. His father approached him slowly, and, patting his head, offered a thumbs up. "Ganbatte, Issei-kun." His expression told him, but his expression was blank and he didn't want to do any more of this. So he just told his parents to meet him down the stairs as he tried to process the things on his head now.

Rubbing them down, he felt better after leaving the restroom, but nothing had actually changed to his hair or facial features beyond a bright pink scratch on his face. Sighing in defeat, he picked up his bags and changed to his uniform, heading for school immediately afterwards while saying goodbye to his parents on the dinner table. The trip to school was largely uneventful by comparison.

Even so, he had arrived to school with only a few people staring at him, so he that much going for him. He went ahead and went his merry way to his classroom until he noticed a girl from a distance stare at him. It was the red haired beauty of the school, Rias Gremory, through and through, but in some way she stared at him in... fear? What?

Even if he tried to call her in, however, he was interrupted immediately by his intrepid comrades Motohama and Matsuda as he walked by. Her silhouette slowly disappeared over the distance, and Issei didn't have much to note of at all. Still staring back, Matsuda attempted to call Issei's attention. "Hey man, you feeling alright? You seemed groggy for a while now."

Snapping out of his trance, Issei looked to his side and responded. "Y-Yeah, just... just felt a little dizzy was all. I think something like that's happening at least..." Motohama's turn. "Yeah, more than that, where the hell did this strip of black and white hairs come, man? You feeling stressed lately?"

"Yeah, I guess... Yuuma-chan was scaring me a bit yesterday. Got a really creepy nightmare too." He shivered, thinking of the nightmare he had the night before and of the stuff that happened that morning as well.

"Yuuma-chan... Wait, you have a girlfriend Issei!?" The other two boys yelled, to Issei's confusion.

"Yeah, didn't I tell you about her already?"

The rest of the day had progressed without much fuss afterwards, with much of the same events occuring as they did in the original timeline. Of course, there would be one major difference. The servant Issei had summoned, that is. And the fact that Yuuma didn't go out of her way to scrub her being completely from their minds, seeing that they'd still trusted Issei to an extent.

Issei left the movie theater with his friends, and split afterwards, Issei taking the time to say goodbye to both. He looked up to see the time, and sighed. He walks through the park aimlessly, looking side to side the people walking past him. And as the moment passed, he could feel an eye brush past him from behind, and Issei was on high alert.

"This is rare. To meet someone like you out in the open is a totally new occurence for me." A masculine voice echoed behind him. Instantly, Issei turned back, seeing a creepy, menacing man in clean a suit approach him slowly.

'A dangerous man, that's what he is!' Issei nervously noted, taking care to avoid any handguns or knives that might pop out of nowhere. He tries to put some distance to no avail, as the psycho got ever closer to him.

"Trying to run away now? It must be someone with either a very low rank or a weird hobby to choose this place as a territory. So, who's your master?"

He tries to run away, but a black feather pops as he realizes that the man out to get him was flying. "Don't even bother, I'll always catch up to you. Now give it up! I'll make it easier on you if you do."

A sense of familiarity sparked through him as he gulps, raising his hands up in surrender. Better to die quickly than slowly and painfully, he thinks, but his mind goes blank as just after a spear threatened to disembowel him, he panicked, and fell unconscious. Just after, a surge of strength pulses through the boy, changing his clothes into a white robe and armor, and holding a spear and sword in hand. The shock of the change was enough to knock the fallen angel into a stupor, just in time for both weapons to be lodged in their body.

A girl had followed him this entire time, it seems. So she raised her weapons to the intruder, and called her. "If you would please stop hiding in that bush over there," she smiled. "I would have no need to execute you if you explained yourself."

Sighing, she walked out of the bush. "You're... You're the same girl I saw three days before. The one that Issei turned into, that's who you are, right?"

"And so what if I am? I've been contracted to protect him to the bitter end, and that means drastic measures as taking over his body before he could be hurt in any way." She shivers mildly, and clutches at a weak spot on her gut. "Ah... It appears I don't have much time left... If you would, please bring Issei back home and put him to sleep there. Ugh." She keels over, right onto Rias's arms.

She looks back and forth, and sighs when she notices that his clothes went back to normal. Deciding right there, Rias Gremory picks up the boy in a bridal position and lugs him in a bridal position. She could hypnotize his parents into thinking he had already arrived already, but what of her? What would be her excuse?

Ah. Of course. She'd strip down naked and sleep next to Issei on his bed, that would work, yeah, that would... Honestly it would be debatable, but it would be better than nothing. Might be funny, too.

Nagao Kagetora -alternatively, Uesugi Kenshin- wandered through the halls of the large complex she had found herself in. She had figured fairly early on that the reason why they had decided to assassinate her master, so she had to act quickly.

Finding the dragon was pretty easy. Dragons practically radiated magical energies by just existing, so she only had to follow the yellow paved road of prana to it. In a world where the influence of the Buddha was as strong as it had ever been, even the Bishamonten solely could not help her on their own, so she had to dig deeper. The dragon had to be coaxed one way another.

Finally, she felt as if she had found the right one. Knocking on a large gate, the doors had been opened immediately afterwards, allowing her to take in the sight before her. A dragon, one of the most iconic of European mythologies, sat before her. On his left arm was, curiously enough, a large cup the size of Kenshin herself with what she could gather to be the smell of an Earl Gray. Curious.

"You have come." The dragon boomed. She had put a sleeve over her face to cover it from the beast's breath, coughing all the while.

"Yes, I have. Ddraig; the great Welsh Dragon, whose image was raised over the banners and flags of the very same King Arthur of Camelot in the distant past." She leaned her neck left in deep thought. "I presume that you already know what I've come here for?" Her smile hadn't left at all still, giving an interesting impression of herself to the dragon.

"Ha! Of course." He sips on the cup. "I've seen that little boy grow to such a virile youth over the years. It would only make sense that I support him, you know. There will be so much to gain with such little loss." He took a strong sip on his cup, depleting a full third from it.

"If anything, this just proves how dangerous the world has and will become over the years. He will eventually need both of our help." The dragon sighs, looking down still. "Of course, he would have to learn the ropes, both of our own, before he would be anywhere close to defending himself."

"So, we have a deal, then? You know the troubles he will face eventually? The supernatural powers that even I cannot handle?" She smiled neutrally as always, looking up still at the beast of legend.

"Provided you have justifiable situation to require my help. That would come very soon, I can tell." His eyes returned to the question maker. "So yes. We do have a deal." They both smiled, and both shook their hands in agreement, with Kenshin clutching the dragon's ring finger to make it work on both ends.

As Issei Hyoudou slept on his bed, a bright red glow flashed through his blanket. On the one hand, were a set of Command Seals, constantly regenerating despite never quite being used yet. On the other, was a red gauntlet, Issei Hyoudou's boosted gear and otherwise his sole claim to fame. Both would flash moments after again, with the one on his left disappearing outright, only appearing again whenever needed, and the one on his right only appearing as a scar only noticeable by people with great magical powers.

Issei Hyoudou rolled over and over his bed, scratching his head lightly as it grew ever longer and whiter. His skin grew a shade paler, and two nubs started to make themselves known. As you would imagine, of course, Issei had to be dreaming of rolling over the massive mounds of real estate that he imagined hot women to have.

For Kagetora, if this were to be the distinction that set her apart from the Demon King, then so be it. It would have given her the chance for both of them to prepare more for the worst. This was to be expected when she had accepted this role, but she had to make the most out of it anyway.

As the Lancer of Eight Flowers walked away from the gates, she considered something. She smiled a bit more, for once wholly genuine as she set to make her next move. "I should introduce myself to master properly this time around," She thinks, already making her preparations.

-O_O-

_For what it's worth, I pulled this concept out of my ass. First, I wanted a Megumin self-insert, but then I realized how tacky I'd look in her outfit so I scrapped that. Then, I wanted to do a self-insert with Kenshin as the protagonist, but I thought the way I wrote it was too creepy for even me, so I scrapped that as well. All of that, leading to this. Well, better than nothing out of that old concept piece. Also do keep in mind that this was going to be a hell of a lot longer, but got cut for simplicity's sake. It's just one omake for god's sake, and getting too hurty for my small brain. If response is positive enough to justify another installation, or a story of its own, just tell me. I'll consider it._

_Also, I think that the Kenshin here is a lot less vibrant and excitable than the actual Kagetora written in Guda Final, but I think I can get away with this sort of interpretation. I think of it as a Type Redline cocktail, and a little bit of overt seriousness just because. Speaking of, you'll be seeing a little bit of that next. Not next directly, just a little later._

_So basically, Issei doesn't know Kenshin exists at all, at least for now. Once they do, they're going to lead into a lot of fucked up shit involving Issei slowly having his values skewed by her lack of human morality, but otherwise he'd be the straight man here. And thereafter, Kagetora would actually, willingly allow Issei to fondle her tits because she doesn't really understand humanity and wants to start with his libido. Nice, eh?_

**Side Story 5:** AOwSaJHS Canon Omake – An Old Friend

Himeji Castle, Hyogo Prefecture. It took them a few hours to hitch a ride in Tokyo (they were handling some kind of business) and another few to actually arrive there. For what it was worth, Issei only agreed to their inevitable altercation because Rias-senpai had an important business meeting with some of the other groups and she was in some undisclosed deal with them, too. Whatever it was, didn't matter because all he remembered was that she said:

"_I'm so sorry Issei, but I need to do something with them right now. I might be gone for a whole week, but I'm not so sure what else to say but take care with the rest of the club." She bowed down and went out of the hotel room with Akeno and Kiba towed behind her. _

Which led him -though her would be more appropriate at the moment- to this. Staring straight at the legendary Himeji Castle, wearing a red t-shirt and cap, a pair of denims and of course carrying a light assortment of equipment on a small blue backpack behind her. Her swords would not need to be carried physically seeing how they'd be very suspect in Japan nowadays, but Musashi still felt the need to carry them somehow.

She did it successfully with a pair of sheaths hanging just next to her backpack, and despite the curious shape no one really bothered her about them, which suited her just fine. From what she could understand they saw her swords as a pair of shinai, or she might be mistaken. Well, it didn't really matter now.

What did matter was for her to find some temporary lodgings in time. Seeing the Inn just a few blocks away was enough to alleviate her concerns however, and it only took a few minutes talking to the owner about her week and a half long stay to give her the keys to her room, from which she stuffed her belongings near her futon. Sighing, she waited until it was nighttime to make her move. It wouldn't do well for anyone to see her go inside, after all.

After a quick dinner at a local eatery, she set off. Getting her swords, she swapped into her kimono and disappeared from sight. Walking slowly to the entrance, she let Musashi take over and handle the rest. She knows her more personally, after all, and it would do well for her to negotiate.

Musashi walked around the hallways with ease. In her lifetime, she was already somewhat familiar with the layout but it was a good idea regardless to find something to make her wandering more fulfilling. She paused at an intersection, noticing the restroom sign on top of the door in front of her. Modern furnishings would be expected if she thought of the Osakabehime that lived in Chaldea, but she didn't think it went this far.

In fact, it did, considering all of the modern implements she wasn't really expecting a UNESCO World Heritage Site to have sockets dotting the hallways. She guessed that she used some kind of trick to hide them from any tourists, but brushed the implication off. Or maybe she did? She did have a pretty high Morph skill, and she also made that massive Eli-chan mech that Halloween.

She froze, and smiled. She could hear the wailings and footsteps of a girl all around her, and that voice was distinct enough on its own. Even if this world's Miyamoto Musashi was a man just like the last world she found herself in, she'd recognize her immediately. Though, did she really have to go for the white lady aesthetic? She could see her wearing that bedsheet around, and for maximum effect she even took her glasses off.

She thought she was a fox, or at the very least a bat… But that didn't matter. Even in this world it seemed that Osakabehime-chan had the same face she had when she extorted was gifted that snazzy sword the first time she ventured into the castle. After that, she visited from time to time to keep her company, and the rest was history.

Even if her techniques to keep people from bothering anymore, she was sure it was still the same Osakabehime she remembered. And so, when the foxfire popped up in front of her, the telltale appearance of her Sailor Uniform/pink coat with a cheap bedsheet on top, it felt like she was right on the money. Her face, though

"Osakabehime, it's been a while!" Though not recognizing her immediately, the sword stance the swordswoman was was intensely familiar to her. And not to mention, her magical aura… Her eyes widened, pointing at the other girl.

"Mu-Musashi-chan!?" She basically shouted, shocked that her old friend was back to life. And a girl, at that. The latter part was more important to her, honestly, since she's seen the revival thing often enough with the local Devil community.

She dropped all pretenses and leaped straight at Osakabehime, pushing both of them on the wooden floor with a bang. She nuzzled next to her shocked face, even as Osakabehime attempted to and failed to resist her affectionate glomping.

"It's been so long, Okkie! Don't you know that?" Musashi shouted, glad to see another familiar face after so long hanging out with new ones.

"M-Musashi-chan, weren't you a guy- o-or were you a girl, I can't even remember anymore!" Osakabehime had evidently been quarantined in her home still this entire time, which was unsurprising considering how long she's been doing it. "H-How are you still alive, I saw you dead centuries ago!" She paused. "AND WHY ARE YOU A GIRL!"

Musashi stopped nuzzling and stared straight at Osakabehime's face, which made the omega NEET blush. "Oh, that's a long story, silly." Releasing the hold, wherein both awkwardly stood up afterwards. Still grinning, Musashi continued. "Come on! Let's talk about it in your room – It's still in the top floor, right? We have a lot to go over."

"W-Wait Musashi-chan, I don't think you're understanding my need for privacy-"

"Oh, will you relax? I'm just getting started!" She smiled, and picked up the approaching girl on her two arms, carrying her like a bride to Osakabehime's room.

The rest of the evening was a joyful and tearful reunion between the two old friends, even if one of the two happened to be an alternate dimension, big booby version of her old friend that looked nigh identical to the version of her that she had in the game she was playing. That part wasn't as important, somehow, but it was still brought up. And wasn't she glad that she met a fictional character in her home? Though she was mildly offended that she was dubbed a fictional character, it wasn't too bad and they sparked

When the time came for her to leave, to put it bluntly, she didn't have to. She got a room near Osakabehime's, and even came to the point that Osakabehime personally requested that she cuddled next to her. Which she agreed to, at least. She was starved for attention after stuffing herself in her room for so long, that she wasn't sure if it was 5 centuries or 7 since she first met her.

And so, the only thing she had to do when she came back to her room in the inn the next day was explain bluntly that she woke up flat drunk and sleeping in a dumpster after a rowdy night. They didn't need to explain any more than that afterwards, letting them fill in the bits themselves. It was the same pattern over and over again until the day she came to leave.

And on that day… "Okkie-chan, can you promise me something?" Osakabehime waited for the response, knowing what to expect, and nodded. "Do try to be a bit more sociable, okay?" Osakabehime nodded, nervously, looking around at the crowd gathering near the trains, and of the people staring at her curious attire.

"I already gave you my contact information, so if you ever need something, just give me a call." She paused after hearing her train arrive at the station. "Ah, that's my train! Take care!" She said goodbye, ran towards the doors, and the image of the travelling girl would be etched in Osakabehime's memory for the rest of her immortal life. She smiled, and nodded once again, mostly to herself this time.

The train slowly drove away from the city, and Osakabehime walked back home. Arriving at the castle, she nodded off all the security guards who were wondering what the princess was doing outside of the castle for once. Arriving at her room, she wondered if her NEET lifestyle was really going to be sustainable with Musashi coming in and out whenever she wanted now. She'll see.

Lying down on her futon, she would pick up her phone and play around with it, but a piece of paper sparkled like crystals on top of her kotatsu. Walking over to it, she gasps, and realizes exactly what it was. She cries, thanking Musashi over and over again for being such a good friend and promises to keep her end of the deal.

Motivated, she runs over to her desktop PC and immediately went on a buying spree on Amazon to buy workout equipment and socialization books. Because Issei and Musashi were feeling generous.

The gifts she gave?

5 400$ Google Gift Cards.

And that was enough to make the NEETest of NEETs to finally work herself to proper shape.

-O_O-

_This was the last one finished before I uploaded everything at once. Have to say, it's kind of underwhelming. I think? Oh well. Initial outfit is her travelling outfit as you would imagine. I find it cute._

_Though the drabble was a bit on the short side, try to imagine the train scene with Never More from Persona 4. You're kind of supposed to fill in the bits anyway._

**Side Story 6:** A Miko _and_ a Fox Girl, 2?

Servant Caster slowly formed into being after she had realized the intruders coming into her home out of nowhere. They had tripped the wards she had set up around the perimeter and invited themselves inside of her home without even asking for permission. How rude! And by the time they realized that they've been duped, it was already too late, and the two of them suddenly found themselves inside a second room floor with no one else

Tamamo-no-Mae slowly poured a few cups of tea for her esteemed guests, two members of the well-recognized Rias team Koneko Toujou and Kiba Yuuto. On the one hand, their snooping around her home to confirm their suspicions of some sort of hypnosis or geas having been applied to their

"I hope you could explain why you have been snooping around my master's home for so long…" Tamamo began. She tapped impatiently on the table, raising an elegant eyebrow at their plead for forgiveness. "I do hope you've realized by now, but it's late at night during a Saturday of all times, and he needs all the sleep he needs for the exam next week."

"And what did you do?"

"We snuck inside of your house to confirm our suspicions… Miss Rias wasn't budging at all when we asked her about the details behind her and your master's meeting a few days ago." Kiba raised his head from the floor. "We were worried when we felt a little magic pouring out of her eyes, so we had to act in some way to make sure that she wasn't being hypnotized." Koneko looked at him for a moment from her kneeling position, then continued her observation of Issei's so-called Servant.

"Good. That was all you needed to say. That said," Her eyes lidded dangerously. "You don't think you could have asked us directly? Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. Just a mutual geas to ensure neither of our secrets were leaked by accident without the consent of the other." '_Though I have my doubts that a pornographic magazine should truly be considered a major secret in her part,' _she thinks to herself, considering the myriad of other skeletons just waiting to come out of her closet.

"Ah, Tamamo-san, if you wouldn't mind, could you please tell us where Issei is the entire time? I know you've been telling us this entire time that he needs his beauty sleep to prepare, but it's almost like he's never been home the entire time we've been here." One of the two asked, but she wasn't taking care to identify either of their voices this time around with her eyes closed.

"Oh, that's very simple, Mikon! Just watch." She snapped her fingers and her body and eventually the whole room was enveloped in a bright light. Her lean and slender physique turned rougher and more masculine, turning into a picture-sperfect copy of Hyoudou Issei in his school uniform.

"Ah." They both blinked, looking at the transformation with not much else, though just afterwards she had transformed again into Tamamo-no-Mae. "I'm to guess that you're filling in for Issei-san then?"

"In a way, but it's only during situations like this. I can guarantee you that you wouldn't see me most of the time because he does this kind of thing better than me." She grinned with both of her arms propping her face up.

'_So, he's busy right now and can't interact with us himself? Tough luck, honestly.' _They thought inside, but still accepting of the hospitality given to them by their host. They waited for whatever she had to say next.

A moment of silence came afterwards. None of them interacted in the slightest, even with Tamamo's disarming smile staring straight at them. Kiba awkwardly took his cell phone out of his pocket to see the time, and felt dejected to see it's only been 5 minutes since then. Opening his mouth, he began.

"So…" Kiba began. "Are we done here?" Tamamo smiled maliciously under her breath at the question, both of their expense, and prepared to counter whatever she had with whatever they could still get their hands on.

The tension dropped dramatically when instead of a weapon, she had brought out a half a glass baking dish's worth of lasagna from underneath the kotatsu. It was covered with a piece of cloth and, despite looking like a day old, it still looked palatable and edible, which made both of them think that she had in some way preserved the food presentably. Presumably using some kind of magic, but it was better than nothing.

"Do try to eat as much as you can, okay? I cooked a little too much the other day but despite my attempts to make it smaller, it still ended up being too much." She pushed two plates at them with forks and knives, and offered them to eat. The two looked at each other momentarily, eating slowly despite the absurdly sweet taste of the sauce used. It was good, but it was too sweet to be pasta.

After a while…

"We'll send the message to Rias-sama that we've worked something out. You can expect an invitation to the club in just the next week. So until then," Koneko brushed her hair out of her face. "Do take care." She smiled, an emotion enough for Kiba to look at her in turn.

"We'll be seeing you!" Kiba shouted, looking back at the home while facing the rising sun. They both walk away from the front door and Issei sighs.

He takes a broom out of the hallway closet and sweeps the floor of any dirt and debris that may have been left over, whistling a cheerful jingle all the while. A few steps rang down the staircase, signaling that his parents were arriving now, queueing his morning routine of making breakfast for the whole family. With mastered multitasking, he washed the dishes, cleaned the floor and cooked breakfast for all of them at the same time.

It wasn't the life the real Issei Hyoudou would have been capable of doing, but she would still do her best to try. She smiles melancholically as she sees it all front and center, even as her parents compliment her on her diligence and cooking skills. The fact that she wasn't him 100% anymore was irrelevant from that point onwards, because as far she could tell?

They were still home.

-O_O-

_As it turns out, Tamamo!Issei refers to Issei in the third-person. Not wrong, but it's kind of a bit of both I'm seeing here. Kind of like how Space Ishtar or Maou Nobunaga does it, like how they know that they're all the same person but treating them like a different person regardless. I'd use Doctor Who as an example, but you know, he actually spoke to himself on numerous occasions, to the point that it's kind of a gimmick you'd expect for anniversary productions._

**Canon Side Story: **Promotional Material, and Professional Cosplaying

"_No seriously Issei, what did you need us to do?_" Issei Hyoudou looked on with a glassy look on her face.

The day immediately after Issei Hyoudou showed her two friends the light novel with her face in was… interesting, to say the least. They very well recognized the appearance of her uniform on the upper right corner, with her looking more than spooky and upper class enough when she would bother with all of that. That said, they raised a very important question.

Why in the bloody hell did Issei look so much like her to begin with? And so, Issei Hyoudou realized right then and there that it may have been a bad idea to invite both of her friends to discuss her apparent presence in the book if she didn't want either of them knowing the identity of the equally violent and aggressive little girl inside of her. Her heartbeat raced as she thinks up ways of getting out of this.

A lesser writer would admit defeat, noting that there would have been no logical way of explaining how Issei would get away with still retaining her secrets but still showing them the problem with the serious Koha/ACE light novel and her mirror image on the front page. Then they would retcon the whole event and pretend it never happened. Easy peasy, but I wouldn't go for that; it's a cop-out, and I already have an explanation.

Because, very simply put? _They never made the connection to begin with_. Issei stumbled over herself after she saw the two, though mostly Sona, have Yen symbols on their eyes and even just a little drool coming out her mouth. They, not caring much about the connection of the little girl that seemed so sociopathic, took note of a very lucrative deal that they could make out of this. Especially considering the exorbitant expenses incurred in very high-class restaurants, Eat All You Can buffets, and steakhouses, courtesy of the girl they were going to have work her way through to pay for most, if not all of it eventually.

Issei Hyoudou looked at both of them with a nervous smile as she slowly crawled away into the frameworks of her bed,

Which is how Issei found herself in a small local convention near them, the crowd of cosplayers gathering around her for her picture-perfect cosplay of Oda Nobunaga, the Demon Archer, in a mildly suffocating fashion. Sona looked from the side, taking a picture every now and then and acting as a sort of negotiator to a representative from the Marketing Team of Fate/Grand Order for Issei to do some work with them on the side. Something she happily obliged.

Another snapshot and pose later, and Issei felt absolutely exhausted. She excused herself from all of the waiting photographers and people surrounding her to get some fresh air and R&R, to their massive disappointment. Sighing deeply after leaving the outhouse, she moves to go back to the crowd of photographers waiting for her to return, until something stops her on her tracks.

On the way back, she brushes past a blonde haired cosplayer wearing a blue haori, evidently an Okita cosplayer of some sort. She excuses herself until they both spark, as they both stare at each other with widened eyes. "H-Hey, are you-!?" She began, until she was dragged over to the crowd of photographers by her manager yet again, not getting the chance to realize what was going on.

Oda Nobunaga knew what was going on in her mind. She already knew who that girl really was. The girl they went past… It was _her_ Okita Souji. Another Servant… How does that even happen? The servant in question stared back at her aimlessly before turning back and continue walking. Her face seemed almost unreadable to her.

As much as she wanted to ask her something, they just didn't have time or circumstance on their side right now. She just had to do her job right now, and that was to entertain everyone at the fest. Needless to say, they both went out of the convention center roughly a few thousand dollars richer, which was nice. What wasn't nice for her but totally euphoric for the other girl however were her plans to eventually dress her up in even more characters for the next few cons, starting with a cosplay of Kagura from Gintama.

-O_O-

_A bit underwhelming as far as side stories go, yeah, and a little too serious especially since this is supposed to be the follow up to the one I made back in December. My deep apologies about that. The rant about lesser writers was actually about me._

_I might actually fill this up soon enough. That's for when my head's not full of fuzz, though, because I've been creatively starved for months. God knows how my lack of human interaction is affecting my psyche._

**Canon Side Story: **How Nobbu Seduced the Glasses Pervert Girl by Accident (pending title)

Nobunaga was in a tight spot, it seemed. Moments after another succesful mission with Sona, Issei Hyoudou tripped and fell on a branch on the way back to school just as they were about to transform back into their original outfits. The green light enveloped her body, but as she lacked the physical willpower to transfer her consciousness to the front and center due to being out like a light, she transformed into her regular uniform once again with Nobunaga Oda accidentally given the reins.

Which, as you would imagine, was the bulk of the problem already. As her presence in Issei's body has been a closely guarded secret that not even the Leviathan was allowed to know about, thus not even made aware that they'd swap places sometimes, it made it very clear that if Nobbu was unable to act like Issei normally would, then the secret could come out in flames. As she slowly stood up, trying her best to acclimate to the physique of her Avenger form's second stage, she realized that Sona was approaching her from behind. She turned around, awkwardly, to meet her honest confusion.

Sona Sitri tilted her head, puzzled. "Is there something wrong, Issei? Did Emerald tell you something irritating again?" The Student Council president-to-be had long since outgrown the concept of magical girl cosplays and roleplaying, but out of habit she still went out on the operations with Issei for old time's sake. Her limited knowledge on the specialized equipment that Issei had only extended to knowing that it greatly amplified her powers and allowed her to fight like a regular magical girl.

Emerald was well aware of their agreement to speak not a word of Nobbu's presence as well, awkwardly shifting around Issei's belt pocket. She replied, quaintly, "Oh nonono, Miss Sitri, nothing happened! Nothing happened at all!" Nobunaga concurred. "Y-Yeah, it just hurt a little bit, don't- don't mind me." A bead of sweat fell of her brow, and Sona sighed.

"Just remember to go to your class this time, Issei." Sona admonished the younger boy, still mildly surprised that he actually found out a way to retain his old plumbing. "We had enough trouble with Miss Taro complaining about your tardiness. Our special operations do not qualify as an excuse for people who are unaware of the supernatural, understand? Good." She started walking away, and Nobunaga released a deep sigh she didn't know she was holding in.

The Demon King wasn't particularly familiar with Issei's daily routines at her school, being that she mostly focused on the more auxiliary and supplemental aspects of school life such as the extracurricular activities, sports and of course, Modern Japanese History. As a result, there were a few moments that Nobbu could've used in preparing for Issei's next class, but ultimately wasted by her indecisiveness and lack of awareness towards those daily activities. In fact, just ten minutes before the time hit one, the teacher meant for her next class passed by, reminding them both of the test on Mathematics that was supposed to be covered that day.

Nobbu froze, realizing that for the last 2 hours before Issei went to bed she studiously read textbook after textbook, numbers too complex for her to understand were pasted on the wall of the shared bedroom as she recited on it over and over again. Issei may not always be the greatest in Mathematics, but that time, that evening? She poured her heart out, telling Nobu over and over again how this time, she'll pass, that this time, she'll have a high score.

Too bad she wasn't able to see it through this time, that crazy girl. Nobunaga faced the classroom floor in an OTL position, silently muttering 'I have failed you, I have failed you!' over and over again. Her classmates looked at her worrringly, viewing the boy as the best in their class overall despite his otherwise average markings in the Mathematical end of the spectrum. If even he has began to keel over, what could they possible do to tide the pain over?

But Nobunaga had a plan in store. From the perspective of the entire rooom, he stood up and walked back to the arm chair with a determined look on his face. Yet just as much on the inside, they had a plan to consider.

Kaleido Emerald was a work of magical art. A mystic code devised by the Kaleidescope and based of its sister models, Ruby and Sapphire, Kaleido Emerald was unique among all of them for featuring all of their utilities, including the usage of class cards as the battery and power source of a lot of its strengths and its direct connection to the Multiverse as a whole, and also by featuring a full fledged scientific calculator and various other doodads within its programming.

Yes, Kaleido Emerald was one of the unique mystic codes in existence. Despite being powered by magical powers, it also held an entire microcomputer within its circuits despite the clear contrast between machinery and magecaft. As Kaleido Emerald would put it just a few moments before it began, "I am what you may call an anathema. Despite being magical, I am also technologically superior. And despite being technologically superior, I do not curtail the development of magic as a whole by my entire existence for I do not exist to simplify life."

And as far as computers go, he was pretty good. He came with a built in clock, an MP3 player, a small holographic screen to watch movies in and even a USB port that Issei sometimes uses to charge her phone. But that wasn't the reason why Nobbu was so excited, oh no. Rather, it was Emerald's ability to connect to the Internet through a micro copy of Mozilla Firefox on her storage units that came so handy. And through Mozilla Firefox came multiple online calculators that were more than willing to supplement Nobu's lacking knowledge in Basic Calculus.

The stage was set, and all that was left now was for Nobunaga to wait for the papers to be passed over to her. On the teacher's table were stacks of paper that almost reached the top of the blackboard. Any of Nobunaga's pride left over after such a spectacle burned out in an instance, but she held on for as long as possible. It couldn't be that bad, she thought, but looking through her copy, her meek smiles turned into deeper frowns and an open mouth when she realized she might have swallowed more than she could chew.

Even with Nobunaga's ace in a hole, there was no chance for her to legitimately win like this at stake. But she realized a solution just as quickly. She opened up Issei's belt pocket, asking the magical stick as discretely as possible. "You think you could wander around and tell me the answers of some of the smarter looking kids when you're invisible." The look of realization on both of them widened happily as they set this plan in motion alongside their original plans.

The test went on and on for the next 30 minutes, but despite that it didn't feel as exhausting as it could have been. Oda Nobunaga stared blankly at the test sheet as the answers came in soft whispers, just barely heard by the muggle population of the classroom. She wrote them down as accurately as she possible could, making sure to include the equations as requested by the instructions given. A cold sweat gathered in her brow, as she tried her best to write them down as they went.

As the test drew to a close, Nobunaga rested her head on the armchair with no cushioning. She was just about to sleep it off, until...

SLAM! The teacher's desk was slammed by the teacher in charge with a loud "Silence!" The teacher gathered in the miffed looks on all of the students faces and so they thought to themselves, oh boy what is it this time. "I've been hearing loud whispers gathering around here this entire time, and I know that they're the answers to the quiz! Who could possibly be audacious enough to help someone during the middle of a major exam?"

Her buttons decided that at that point, it was the best time to split. POP goes the buttons, and the sound of a pen rolling over a desk rattled through from the front columns, and they all looked there. The teacher looked to the general direction of the transparent wand, and both Issei and the teacher gasped.

"Matsuda-kun, how could you!" The boy sputtered uncontrollably as his scheme unravelled itself, letting the cheat sheets fall of his clothes one by one. His seatmate, Motohama, palmed his face as he muttered how he should've taught the boy right, until he realized that he was also right next to the teacher. The teacher took the boy's paper and ripped it in half, solidifying their current position as the boy began crying into his seat, while glaring holes into the glasses wearing otaku.

A girl next to Issei spoke up, referring to Issei in particular. "Gee, what did he do this time to go out of their way to do that, huh? Don't you agree?"

Nobunaga blinked. Looking to her left, she asked. "To what?"

"Well, you know. Desperation forcing their hand and stuff, could've done more to study and stuff... He wasted more time ogling at girls instead of actually studying."

"Yeah... I guess." Kiryuu turned to face him,

"You think he could've done better?" Nobunaga thought about it, and realized yeah. Yeah, she probably did. It wasn't the most positive of opinions, not at all, but their antics really soured her opinions of them tenfold.

"I guess he could've. I don't remember too much about him, but I could tell that the guy did all of that as some sort of twisted coping mechanism." She sighs. "Don't you think so too? There's no way any normal human being would be so obssessed with a pair of fat in such a short span of time. I get that kids get perverted in puberty, but look at me! I'm not salivating over every new episode of Kaben Rider like a loon.'

"I mean, take a look at the guy. He's a sputtering mess." Nobunaga sighed deeper, letting her disappointment at their wasted potentials known. "Despite having an elaborate plan to cheat in the exams, all it took was looking at our teacher's pair of boobs to leave him open to counterattack. Honestly, you'd think that they'd be doing much better if they didn't let their libido control themselves all the time. What a waste..." And that, to be honest, was her take on the truth here.

For once in Aika Kiryuu's life, she was at a loss. Certainly, her grades were better than most, but she went through most of her life thinking that her talent was something that she could use to get out of any situation without worry in any way. Now though, she wasn't so sure if it was either the morally right or smart thing to do. She blushed, and coughed.

"I... Oh, I don't know. I didn't honestly expect a response that intelligent from you, pretty boy. Thanks for that." Nobunaga blinked once again, confused who she was referring to. "Well," She stood up. "Guess this is my time to leave. See you next time, then."

"The same to you." She took her bags, and left the room, leaving behind a teared up Motohama and Matsuda, and a really incensed teacher. The Kaleidostick followed quickly after, inserting herself into the belt pocket without needing to be notified.

Just as Nobbu prepared to leave the school, Issei regained control, a fuzzy feeling in her vision. Issei had to ask, "What did I miss this time?"

Nobunaga answered excitedly, "Oh, I answered your exam for you, Issei! I might have cheated a little bit, but it shouldn't be too bad. They'd be the same answers anyway, right."

Issei nervously agreed, but she still had a great sense of foreboding coming after her for the next day. She could worry about it next time. And worry she did.

The next day, the test results were released. That day, Issei screamed, as though his score was not bad in any way -it was 70% of the exam-, a very laconic "Remember to add in your justifications and solutions, Issei." A little addendum after that read "And make sure the equations are correct to begin with!"

**Canon Side Story – **Canon Lead-Up

Raynare went inside her safehouse, tired after a day of doing menial labour to pay off her rent and working on the side to get on her boss's good side again. Plopping down on her couch, feeling tired, she would just about fall unconsciousness if it wasn't for her feeling a rough piece of metal poking her arse immediately afterwards. Rubbing her sore arse, she picks up the offending material and realizes that it's a communicator of some sort. Just after, however, it rings, making her reel after hearing the voice on the other line.

"Raynare."

"Sir?"

A few explanations later... Midway through, she finds the box in question. She raises her eyebrows and her pupils turn into pinpricks as she realizes what kind of contract she's being asked to do.

"I don't get what you mean that, Azazel-sama, I am not going to go out in that reprehensible attire!"

...

"What? What do you mean it's the only way to mend our relations? That Gremory girl hasn't talked to you in years? Doesn't she actively avoid you to begin with!?"

... ... ...

"I could give a rat's ass about that brat's opinion about it, what I'm asking is why you felt the need to stuff me in this thing just to make amends!"

... ...

"I think you're acting nerdier than you've ever been, if I'm being quite honest."

...

"Wha- Azazel-sama, that's totally uncalled for! Y-Yes, I called you that in the first place, but... Haah...!?"

From the other end, the Governor-General only smirked. "It's either befriend the kid or don't, Raynare. Either way, I'll let you be if your presence has made a positive effect. Your punishment would be lightened, as a direct result. And don't you think that so good? Just start as soon as you can. I expect results." The sound of a phone being slammed down, and the beeps of a dial tone afterwards.

Raynare dropped the communicator to the ground, realizing the implications. She gulps deeply, and looks at the box full of clothing. Blinking twice, she approaches it.

"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do..."

She awkwardly takes the school uniform up and shivers, taking in the smell of the morning sun. It was evidently and very recently ironed. Looking at her windows, she realizes that the morning sun had penetrated through, and on a Monday at that so she had to act quickly. Taking a quick shower, she started by putting on her socks.

"Alright then, Issei... I hope you're going to enjoy me, because there's no way I'm going to try and pay off all my debts in another decade." She sighs, and puts it all on. Walking out of the door with all her identification papers, Yuuma Amano stepped out of the door wearing the Kuoh Academy uniform with a frown on her face.

Locking the door behind her, she breathes in deeply. Moments after, she marches towards the school with a fire in her eyes.

**This'll be related to Chapter 9 in some way, I'm sure. I'm just gonna figure out a way to implement it to the story since I still don't know how to start it. If anyone has recommendations, hit me up, please. I'm brain dead and totally drained nowadays. Being stuck in your house isn't good for your creativity.**

**Either way, sorry for the long half-year wait. I'm back, and hopefully for good. All bets are off.**

**The low, low likelihood of me making these stories independent are low but not impossible. Just hit me up if you want me to give you the blessing to adopt one of these or for me to write them myself. K? K.**

**Also, lastly: It seems I've been downplaying how powerful Maou Nobunaga is as a whole. Like hell I'm going to downplay Papiyas Metamorphosis! It's the Ultimate Divine killer, and makes a good case of beating up most of DXD's supernatural brouhaha if she could maintain it. Kind of like a cursed secret technique that comes with the real risk of harming your friends for good, which fits for drama.**


	11. Chapter 9 - Heaven's Evening Daze

**At this point, I hope you could mentally picture Issei's voice as being a sort of Alphonse voice, with JP Dub or Eng. Dub depending on your preference. Also, my head still hurts, and this chapter could use some better editing, be right back for that.**

**Many things could be improved on indeed. I for one will never be satisfied with this.**

**I did in fact work on this as soon as I uploaded Flowers for the God of War, by the way. Yep, eternal pain.**

**Pay /r/Nobbu a visit, by the way.**

"Issei-kun, could you pass that box over here?" A young woman wearing black glasses asked the young _boy_ close to her with a smile on her face, warmth oozing even as she adjusted her frames rather messily. "I hope it wasn't too much for me to ask you to help with fixing up the Student Council room. You're a friend after all, and…"

Wearing a spiky ponytail, he took off his jacket and put on a chair near him to keep cool during the cleanup. He was handsome, one of the very handsome pretty boy types. This was Issei Hyuodou, former boy-turned-girl-turned-boy again thanks to some very convenient shapeshifting powers. This particular transformation was labelled the Kipposhi one thanks to resembling the attire that she had worn during her tenure as The Fool of Owari.

"Nah, don't you worry all too much!" The _boy_ remarked to her, smiling all the same despite the strain he was holding onto with nary a sweat. A few hours earlier, the elder girl by roughly a year organized a small event in the room to celebrate his induction into the school almost a decade ago. The rough paperwork and the long trail of excuses they needed to get there in the first place was interesting to say the least, and it was pretty obvious how much they needed to stretch their limits before his life as normal human could have ended for good.

It's been years since that fateful day he turned into a girl, and though Issei was very much inclined towards her more feminine side nowadays, it was the simple fact that they registered her as a guy despite the school not officially becoming coed until a few months back that complicated many, many things. It would be hilarious to write the reason why, but it would take too long. That suited her just fine, however, because over time Issei figured out a new place for herself, with new friends that were both supernatural in nature and totally mundane. She was satisfied, to say the least.

As it was, she had to take a male identity within the school, and the fact that normally it seemed as if Oda Nobunaga was as flat as a board until she went out of her way to increase her bust size made it easier on her to take such an identity, which mind you, was pretty easy to go back into. Well, it didn't matter too much. She'd just turn into a guy when she went to school and it'd have been pretty easy to go incognito as a gorgeous, long-haired and pint-sized girl whenever it was safe to. The transformation wasn't as useful as the Avenger spirit origin, anyway.

He took another box, full of old merchandise from the few weeks of fame that they shared when they participated in that convention a few years back, to a shelf on the corner of the room. A shine sparked to the side, and Issei walked over to the box to see some through it. An old poster of Levia-tan, the Type Redline book that they made such a big fuss about before they realized they could make big bucks out of it, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Volume 28 for… whatever reason.

He saw something else that intrigued her, however, something very familiar. It seemed to be the exact same stick that Sitri-san appeared to be holding before they met. It was slightly bent to the side; its paint began to scratch off and its steel beginning to rust. It made him feel a little melancholic seeing it in such a dilapidated state considering how much he used to associate it with Sona, but it has been years since either of them had seen it after all. He spoke up.

"Sona-san… Wasn't this part of your old costume?" He waved it in front of her, with enough stress to finally dislodge it permanently, at which point he awkwardly tried to stick it back together. "I'm pretty sure you used this all the way back until we were 14, when I dressed up as Prisma Emerald and you as Magical Sitri-san, name pending in those Sentai operations that you and your sister officially sanctioned." He smirked, seeing the dark look in her face. "So, I _am_ right! Why'd you drop the gimmick? I actually liked prancing around that skirt whenever we blasted another evil jackass's face with our magical superpowers."

Sona Sitri breathed deeply, and stood up from her desk. She slowly walked over to Issei Hyoudou who now held a rather neutral expression to contrast her menacing one. Huffing deeply, she gave a mocking laugh.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Yes indeed, Issei-kun, you've found me out. That is indeed the very same magical girl gimmick that I stole from my sister." With a dark glint in her eyes, she muttered. "It's the very same. The same design as my elder sister's, in fact, and with the press of a button I could dress up in the same stupid outfit that she made herself all those years ago."

Swiping it straight out of her hands, she squealed. "And I had absolutely no idea where it was, or how it came back to me! So, you're telling me it was here the entire time? I had no idea! Thank you so much, Issei! I lov-. Actually, scratch that part, you might get the wrong idea…"

A gulp, and a confused sigh. "So… Why did it seem like you were so offended by me pointing that out at first? You seem as passionate as you were like when we first met, you know…"

"Oh no, I'm not offended." She took off her glasses in a shoddy attempt to look cool. In Issei's opinion, it just barely worked, but she still looked far too stern to make any lasting effect. "I just grew up." She snapped her fingers, and a shirtless Genshirou Saji took the time to pull up an open electric fan from the other side of the room to give her some air.

With her hair flying in a not-at-all elegant fashion, Sona Sitri shed her mask as the untouchable Student Council president to return to being one of Issei Hyoudou's closest friends. That is to say, a chuuni. Evidently some things had to be passed down from sibling-to-sibling, but even this was getting a bit ridiculous.

Coughing on her fist, she put one hand on her chest -though not in that way- and another arm stretched to reach into the beyond. "Because you, Issei Hyoudou, refused to grow up, and I have. Do you understand that?" From what he could understand, Sona gave her take on Issei's utter refusal to take down the Gundam figurines (that he got paid for during those operations) that he hung on his wall. Though to be fair, one of those Gunplas cost almost 9000$ in American money, so having such a collector's item would have proved to be a pretty interesting bargaining chip when reselling old figures.

Pausing for a bit, Issei looked down for a moment to consider that. She was right in a way but… Um. She looked back up. "Aren't you the one ordering poor Saji-kun here to give you that anime flying hair thing, though? I mean, you're complaining about me being chuuni still but you're the guy going out of your way to slave your pieces to do such an inane thing at the end of the day."

Mildly miffed, she gave him a look. "Can't you give me some for once? Really, you're not that fun to talk to, Issei-kun. Fine, I'll let him be."

Saji put his shirt back on and went back to dusting the ceilings. Sighing deeply, she continued on, her mature attitude returning relatively quickly. She adjusted her collar and gave him a warm smile.

"Well, you know Issei. I just wanted to go back a bit. Those fun years interacting with you was such a breath of fresh air compared to the dead air I keep getting with all those other Devils who refuse to see me as anything more than the Sitri family's heir. It was fun, you know."

"Yeah… I can understand that. But you know," he smiled. "You can start by letting us do those Sentai exercises again." A blank stare chilled his very soul, but he did his best to ignore the feeling. They went back to their duties afterwards.

Once most of the cleanup was finally complete, Issei breathed deeply while looking at the now cleaned up room.

He looked to his side and saw that everyone else was ready to go home by now with the sun beginning to set in the horizon, and was preparing to go out. Picking up the bag, he was just about to leave the room until he felt a tug on his left sleeve. Looking back, he realized that it was Sona doing it, with a pretty deep blush on her face making him feel a little reserved as well.

Eyebrows raised, he asked Sona. "What is it, Sona? You seem sick right now… Do you need to go to the clinic?" Ignoring the fact that there should logically be no reason for Sona to be sick since she technically has completely different biology to normal human beings, '_who knew because she certainly didn't_', all Issei could do was stare at her shake her head awkwardly from her perspective.

In any case, she shook her head a little bit more and tried to mouth something. She opened her mouth "Issei, I…" and closed it all the same. She looked up to look at the taller boy with a meek look in her eyes. "Issei, I just wanted to tell you that…" They shut once more. The spectacled girl was unable to vocalize her response, too shy to make a decent response on her own.

Blinking a little more, Issei leaned his head to the side while trying to process what was being said. "Sitri-san, if you need some help to walk there, I could—"

"No, no, don't you worry." Smiling weakly, she continued. "Issei, I just want you to go home now. Okay? Take care of yourself."

She breathed in deeply, and walked back to look at the windows. "Don't you worry about little old me?" A watery whip formed in her hand. "I'm warning you now." Though that was fairly halfheartedly.

Getting the hint, Issei picked up the pace and walked as quickly down the hallways to the bottom floor. Sighing, he looks at the stick now stuffed inside of her inner breast pocket. Looking back behind him, he could hear giggling from all of the other students inside of the clubroom. Saji in particular had a grin that could be very well described as shit eating.

Adjusting her glasses, Sona sternly faced away from them all. "It's not that easy to do, you know… He's a close friend and all, but I…"

From the side, observing the awkward exchange, Rias gave her take. "Sona-san, I think it's best that you tell him how you feel straight to his face. You're close, aren't you?"

"Close like siblings. Don't you remember that she went out of her way to ask my elder sister to become her elder sister as well? Honestly." She rubbed her shoulder. "I don't know what else to say to her. She's too hard a nut to crack, especially since she's too focused on his duties nowadays to even focus on anything else at the moment…"

"You'll get him eventually. You don't have to worry."

"I'm not sure what to do if I'm too late, though…"

Walking down the steps, Issei considered the rest of the day in her head for a while. He passed by a lot more women than boys at her school, which wasn't all too surprising since they were only just allowed to induct them to the school the year before. Even so, he was a little irritated at the moment.

Walking past a large group of people just outside the gates, his interest was piqued the moment she heard his name among all the names shouted here and there from the crowd. Pausing for a bit, she saw a girl being swooned on by girls and boys alike, and she could hear the usual. "'What's your name?', 'What school did you go to?', 'Your hair looks so pretty', and so on." Meekly she was also reassured that the perverted duo was still doing their usual, if the comments about her cup size were an indication.

From what she understood, this was the exchange student they were talking about from earlier in the day, the same one that turned out to be joining her class next thing in the morning. Why there were people still bugging her, she didn't quite understand, but people would be people, and none of it should concern her in anyway, anyway, so she let it be. Pulling up her bag a bit more, she prepared to walk home once again until she heard one of her classmates shout her name.

"Hey~" Kiryuu doing her usual shouted, "Issei-san! Come over, this girl knows you apparently!" Raising an eyebrow, she walked over there with a pretty neutral stride. "Issei, meet Yuuma Amano. She was gushing about you this entire time; I'll have you know." She gave her a predatory smile. "She must be a pretty big fan."

"Is that right…" Saying that, the other girl finally turned around to face him and he could finally see the new girl face to face. She seemed like a pretty attractive young woman, that was for certain.

Her hair seemed to go down to her waist at the least, she was cute, and she also had an air of moe that she couldn't pin down where exactly she's seen before. It's not like she was feeling particularly interested in another girl trying to pick him up in any case. There were too many variables to consider at this point.

Still, though, where exactly did she see her before? It seemed like she was far too familiar to be just any simple exchange student. His eyebrows pushed inwards as he thought more about it.

As he looked at them back and forth in confusion as he tried to read the situation, he didn't notice the black-haired exchange student shivering in excitement. Instantly, she jumped him and hugged him tightly, and he just barely kept himself stable to stand up. Flustered, he tried to keep herself standing even as her classmates and associates gaped at their surprisingly intimate interaction.

"Issei-kun, it's been so long!" The devious girl shouted publicly, making everyone around them stare while they tried to figure out what kind of relationship the two had. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

Issei tried to reconcile what exactly was going on, but feeling the feathers behind her made him allowed him to put two and two together to realize who exactly it was she was being hugged by. "You… How!? I haven't seen your butt in almost a decade!"

"Oh, but that's been so long, why are you so bothered about that now? I'm already here, right?" She set herself down to the floor, smiling all the while. Though others couldn't see it, Issei just knew that what she was wearing on her face hid the venom and anger of a thousand years. She had to consider how impressive that was; why, she kicked her ass the first time they met a decade ago, and now she hated him that much? That was really nice.

"_Don't you mean _I_ kicked her ass, Issei? You were still too weak willed to handle your powers at the time, you know, and it's not like I don't already know how to kick her and your ass respectively at the same time."_

"_You know, I don't remember you being touchy about the specifics, Nobu, but I'll let this slide. Once."_

"W-What are you doing here, I'm serious I—" He paused herself after looking at the people currently recording with their various gadgets. And she could also swear that the duo took a few snapshots of what she was wearing underneath thanks to how much air time she had in his arms. Gritting his teeth, she sighed, and picked her up in a bridal carry.

"We'll talk about this somewhere else. There's… too many people here right now." Amano could only smile, even as the lightning between their eyes was interpreted as one borne of love. They walked to a more secluded portion of the academy, and he dropped her down.

Letting the girl fix herself, she finally asked. "What the hell are you doing here? Didn't you try to kill me 10 years ago?" Shaking his head, he almost shouted before keeping his cool and asking coolly. "Are you here to finish the job? You know I can—"

"Kill you right where you stand. Yes, I know of your reputation now, Issei Hyoudou." She snapped her fingers and suddenly the surroundings were covered in force field of sorts, presumably to keep their conversation to be snooped on in any way. She was also wearing a slightly different outfit this time around, though all that could be said was the black skirt that didn't cover her front and the braces around waist.

"I've also accounted for your associates, by the way, so you don't have to worry about them snooping in this conversation either." She smirked menacingly.

Eye twitching, he sighed, surrendering his overt suspicion for the meantime. "Alright, I'll let you be for now. What the hell do you want now?"

"Me, Mister Hyoudou? Oh, that's oh so very simple." She sashayed seductively into his chest, in which Issei tried his best swat her away to no avail. "I joined your school to do one, simple thing."

"On top of other ulterior motives?"

"Of course. But this one's the most important one according to the boss…" She put her opera gloved hands around his waist and her head on his chest.

"And that is…?" Issei didn't like the look that morphed from it, the way it changed at least. She smiled to him and whispered her answer near his ear.

"To. Love. _You._" Confused, Issei whipped his head down to look at her face to face – though it did hit her forehead by accident at the same time, he notes. He tried to vocalize his response to no avail, only coming up with a very meek "W-What!?"

"W-What?" He repeated with a pretty deep blush on his face all the while. She smiled still.

"You heard me. I came here _to love you_, Issei Hyoudou. I'm here to serve and protect, you of all people, for you are the apple of my eye. The most important person in the entire school. And at the end of the day, to be your lover." She smirked an even smirkier smirk. "Have I made that quite clear?"

"W-What are you s-saying you idiot, don't you understand what you're telling to other people!?" Gulping something hard down, he shook his head. "Do you understand what you're saying, I, you, you tried to kill me!"

"And?"

"You were older than me! By centuries if not thousands of years!"

"What does that change, exactly?"

"I don't even _like_ you!" Still keeping that unamused stare, she kept her distance and returned to her Kuoh High School uniform. She smiled.

"I think you'll learn to love me as well. You should know, _I'm a pretty passionate lover_."

"What are you even talking about, I—" He was cut off immediately by a kiss on the lips, enough to leave him speechless for the next few. Moments after what seemed like forever, the illusion broke, showing that apparently for the last few minutes spectators have seen what seemed like a lover's spat between distanced childhood friends ended very romantically and hopefully.

The girls cheered and jeered after seeing the kiss, one side of the party disliking the fact that one of the princes of Kuoh was apparently taken now and the other now glad that they didn't have to worry about having to woo him anymore. The boys all cheered unanimously, however, now knowing that they didn't have to compete with the chad of the Basketball team. Congratulations were made, though even they understood what limits were best kept between all of them.

Aika Kiryuu adjusted her glasses and tried to keep a blush from rising, and the banchou president of the Kendo club tried to resist the urge to cry in defeat. From a distance, the Occult Research Club and the Student Council stared aimlessly at the illusion, though only Sona seemed particularly hurt from what happened. All the same, the once seemingly business-only and uninterested Prince of Kuoh Academy, title generally shared with Yuuto Kiba of the Occult Research Club, Issei Hyoudou kissed another girl after so long of not showing any particular feelings to the other sex.

They began to disperse even as Issei tried to dissuade the others from thinking that what they just saw was a fluke, - "Yeah right!" A certain Motohama and Matsuda shouted from their vantage point, though they were immediately ass kicked by some pretty vengeful female students from the Karate club, - to no avail. He waited it out until everyone left their private spot to leave the two alone, and glared at her.

"Well… This is your final decision. Break my heart and ruin your reputation, or…" She tried to hug him but was immediately swatted away to her dismay. "Accept me, and let me become the one and only to you."

Blinking, she had to ask. "Aren't Devil and Fallen Angel societies pretty polygamist, though?" She glared at him.

"Yes, and no. I don't want to go into deeper detail, but I'm sure you got the general idea, right?" She smiled still.

She took her own bag and began to walk away from Issei, leaving him be to wallow alone. "Take care of yourself, Issei-kun~! Ciao!" And so she left, and everyone else left as well.

He would try and call for her friends to come over and all, but he didn't really have that kind of luck at the moment. For one thing, Sona had a pretty severe look on her face that she didn't know how or when it came up. Dealing that would be problematic.

For another, she seemed mighty pissed at him on top of that. It meant that for the sake of her sanity it was ideal for her to stay away from her for the meantime in order to keep her and everyone else's sanities in check. She wondered what else was new.

All in all, her day went on as normal, with everyone gathering up to see the pretty interesting spectacles and Issei himself appearing to be some sort of godly chick magnet. Wonder what that was all about, huh. She took it in stride, and hoped that this wouldn't hurt or, _improve_ her reputation any more than it should have, really.

She walked home and hoped that no one would really notice that something had changed. She plopped down on the chair, and sighed. Taking off the hat she put on after leaving the academy, she tried to sleep the rest of the day off. The male transformation wore off in an instant, and she shivered her way to sleep.

Issei Hyoudou sat down with Rias, Sona in a café just a little while away from the school. Sipping her cup, she sighed, thinking of the events that had happened just before. "You guys saw that, right?"

"Yes." Both girls replied, though Sona appeared to have cut in a little earlier than Rias had. Rias looked to Sona in curiosity before she continued their train of thought.

"I would have interrogated the girl myself, but she went out of her way to avoid me whenever she could, and I wasn't able to do much to research her current positions in town. So as much as I'd like to trail her… I'm afraid I can't. Sorry." She bowed her head in apology, to which Issei waved her off.

"Don't worry about it, you did your best. I'm pretty sure that whatever sort of motivations she has, she wouldn't go out of her way to attack me anymore, right?" They both nodded. "Right."

They looked at him for a while longer. Issei scratched his head in return. "Sorry, that's all I got. It's… weird to talk about, really. She can't just be working alone, her superiors might have ordered her to do this or something, I'm not sure."

"That sounds pretty likely, yes, but I'm not quite sure what kind of goal they have, letting one of their agents infiltrate Devil territory of all places. As a student of all things." Sona rolled her eyes.

"Actually, that seems like something Azazel-san would do, you know…" They looked at her momentarily, blinking. "Ah, that is to say, even he understands that there are some things people have to do to make things easier to each other, that is to say… Um." Coughing a little, she tells them to come closer to her for a bit.

"To tell the truth, guys, I haven't actually met with Azazel in a very long time. He did something pretty embarrassing to a party that my brother organized a few years back and um…" She fidgets a little. "He dropped the 'wrong' type of manga on my lap."

Silence. Issei tugged on the collar of his shirt for a moment and sighed, looking at his phone to see the time. "A-Ah, um. I see. That's unfortunate, Rias. I didn't need to know that."

She shook her head, smiling still. "Don't you worry, Issei. I've already forgiven him about that, he just hasn't changed his voicemail yet." She tugged on her collar. "It's awkward to talk about."

Raising a delicate eyebrow, Sona adjusted her frames when she considered something. "Haven't you gone out of your way to avoid him anyway, however?" Rias turned to face her and, still smiling, nodded once more. Her lenses fogged with a bright light briefly.

"I see."

"So now that that's done, we'll make it clear then. We'll confront her as a team, correct?" They all nodded.

"All right then! We can do this, right team?" They all cheered, and went their separate ways.

The next day they confronted her, asking her about her motivations while she sat down defenseless tied down to a chair. "Why are you really here?" Rias and Sona asked, bloody vengeance ready in their eyes.

While Issei would love to answer the ethical question of asking why they had to take her down while she left her classroom to go home, slip in a sedative then drag her into one of the secluded rooms in the old school building, that would be pretty pointless. It was fairly pointless to ask that, because as Devils, what were you expecting from them? That, she realized, was also a hypocritic statement, especially coming from her, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven.

She'd keep her statements to herself from here on out, it seemed.

"To love—" Whip crack, Raynare looks to the side for a moment. Continue, "To _protect_ Issei Hyoudou. Azazel-sama confirmed to me that if I failed to succeed in this operation, my whole probation would be called off and I'll be stuck cleaning up his dirty apartment once again for the next decade or two."

That seemed… Surprisingly reasonable. Rias considered that, but it seemed something was missing at first. Though what was it now… "Wearing what exactly?"

Raising her eyebrows, she looks to the side, mildly embarrassed. "A-A… Skimpy Maid outfit. A-And some other cosplay he comes up with…" There it was, Issei thinks. That was the surprisingly tech-savvy and degenerative Fallen Angel that he knew that also gifted his old PlayStation 2 a few years back in Christmas Eve! Ah, yes…

'_I'll beat you next time, Issei.' _ Issei Hyoudou heard her tenant speak, smirking after hearing her voice. "No, you won't," she spoke under her breath.

Eventually, they got the hint and finished their investigation, and released her on account of her actually apologizing to the younger girl for her attempted homicide those years back. "I am so sorry about trying to kill you, please forgive me; I am here to amend that, both our factions' relations and how much I may have traumatized you." She kneeled to the ground with both of her hands on the floor, almost in prayer. "Please forgive me."

Admittedly she was a bit half-assed about it, but they all agreed that it was getting late, and that there were much better times to hear her actually try. That said, they did try their best to drill those same lessons in, with the most important one being, uh, personally given by the normally stoic Student Council President.

Evidently the pressure to punish a rival had boiled over into, whatever she was doing at the moment. It took some convincing, but she managed to get around to it. To everyone else's great horror.

"LEARN HOW TO EXPOSIT FIRST BEFORE DOING THAT SORT OF DUMB SHIT, YOU IDIOT!" Shouted an extremely irate Student Council President as she furiously whipped the fallen angel in the ass, leaving behind very large slap marks on both of her butt cheeks. She whined and shouted, but didn't moan.

The moment she tried, her face met the floor and she couldn't breathe before she returned to the chair in the same position. Poor girl couldn't walk properly walk for weeks.

The people viewing the curious sight swore off any attempts to piss off the Student Council President anymore, leaning on the cautious side from then on. For that matter, her Childhood friend and president of the spooky ghosts club considered the sight to be rather out of character for her normally, but it made sense once push came to shove. Issei, on the other hand, could only gape.

Moments passed, and she stopped. They all left the school building immediately afterwards, all promising each other never to speak of it again.

…

Issei Hyoudou walked the street home once more, sighing to himself all the while. It's been past a few days already since seeing Sona's brand of corporal punishment, but he'd really rather not see anything that terrifying ever again. He honestly had enough pain that month as is.

That said… He felt a buzz on his pocket, making him pick up the phone inside. Opening it up, he reads it. It was from his mother, apparently.

"Issei, could you go to the supermarket to buy some groceries? I was going to get them, but right now I'm too busy at work and might have to come home late. Bye!"

Below that was the whole list, listing anywhere from a tray of eggs, chilis, green onions, and some TV dinners as well. There also included some Natto, probably for dad, and some new mittens since apparently mother dropped the pair she owned at first in the open fire. Fair enough, but he needed some money first, but thankfully there was a little note underneath that described in great detail that he could get as much money as he needed from underneath his father's drawer.

He closed his phone with a deep sigh, and increased his pace. A little after, he began to run, trying his best to avoid any oncoming traffic. Despite this, however, nothing could stop him from slamming face first with another person from a blind spot.

"Kyaa—" the woman shouted as she got hit, falling to the ground on a heap, her head bouncing twice. She nursed her head and hand while mewling quietly in pain. She wiped her head with her sleeve with a small sigh, her eyes widening after seeing the blood staining it.

Shaking her head, her eyes open slightly as she realized that someone else got hurt. Who she just bumped into, she didn't know but she was going to do her best to fix whatever injury they incurred after the collision. "Are you alright!? … Eh?" She looked them up and down, but it seemed like the stranger wasn't hurt at all, but she certainly was, if the blood dripping from one of the pointy parts in their hat was any indication.

Issei felt alright, definitely. There were much worse things for him to get hurt by at some point in his life, but he never got to them yet. The way he was made allowed him to be a whole lot tougher than the usual. The question was, what the hell was he going to do now that everyone else saw him crash into her? He was a pretty bad situation now, that was for sure, seeing the pretty big goose egg he gave to the poor girl. And the scratch he gave her on her forehead, ouch…

She looked really pitiful. She was just about keeling over, very dizzy and so on. He felt bad, really bad. If anything, he should be asking that to her instead. It was his fault after all.

He patted himself over a bit, and nodded. He stood up and lent her a hand, which she quickly takes. "I should be asking the same to you, really. I gave you pretty big fall. I'm so sorry about that." He gives her a big, big smile.

He could finally take her appearance in, he realized. Judging from the conservative black robe, the veil that fell to the side and the cross necklace she was wearing, she was probably a nun by occupation. Add all of that with her blonde hair, and she was pretty beautiful, if of the untouchable types thanks to her chosen work. Why she decided to become one at her age, he wasn't so sure, but whatever reason it was wasn't his business.

His thoughts go back to the old friend that left the country almost a decade ago, and he shakes his head. It'd be nice if it was so simple to just go back to remember old memories, but it wasn't. He'd rather not do anything about that at the moment.

The girl shook her head and still gave him a pained, if bigger smile than before. "No, no, don't worry. It's as much my fault as it is yours, you know." She bowed down, flinching slightly at her side, and returned to eye level with him. "D-Don't worry about it, I can walk the rest of the way."

"Is that so…" He breathes in, looking to the sides to make sure everyone else had already walked away from the scene. "Um, pardon me but are you a sister of the church? I can kind of tell from your attire and the veil you wore, so…"

Her eyes widen, and she nods happily, if stiffly. "Ah, yes, yes I am! I'm kind of new to the country, actually, so I'm new to Japan and Japanese culture as a whole. You know, staff restructuring, that kind of stuff. Hehe." She chuckles.

'_Oh, so even the Church is going through its own problems then.'_ He thinks to himself, remembering back to all of the heretical sects that had popped up here and there and caused problems to the local population. Those were the only times he had to cross blades with any more Fallen Angels, though for the most part even they seemed to be separated from the Grigori organization as a whole. At the very least, they were loose cannons of some sort, but he wouldn't know until one of the big honchos spoke up about it.

"I'm actually more surprised to find a person so good at speaking English, you know. I may be from Italy, but I had to learn English pretty quickly so that I could get around talking to tourists and so on. I'm not very good at Japanese as a result, ahahaha…" The laughing turned bitter fairly quickly, though she returned to her positive outlook.

"Although," she tilted her head to the side with her face appearing a little confused. "How did you know that was the only other language I'd be good at?"

He rubbed the back of his head for a bit and looked to the side. "Well, I just had a hunch. Not many people look like you here, you know," '_Besides people like my senpai Rias, but even she had the excuse of looking, acting and even having the name of a pretty exotic European culture. "_And knowing you're a foreigner and travelling here, I figured that'd be the best language you'd be good at speaking."

Smiling brightly, he offered her his hand. "Issei Hyoudou, student at Kuoh Academy. A pleasure to meet you." Nodding once, she takes it and shakes it.

"Asia Argento, soon-to-be sister of the Kuoh Cathedral. The same, and a pleasure to meet you." She cringes, and turns around.

"I beg your pardon, but I have to go now-" She gasped, clutching at her side, and feeling a little blood go down her face once again. "Oooh, that's going to hurt a lot… Don't worry, Issei-kun I can handle myse…"

She breathed in, looking at the hand holding hers with her eyelids wide open. Even he looked a bit surprised at the bold action, but he held onto his desire to do some good that day. Swallowing in some spit, he told her what he had in mind.

"Just go with me for a little bit. My house is only a few blocks away from here. I have some basic first aid training, and I have medicine to treat that there. You don't have to force yourself to go there." Still a little shocked, she nodded dumbly as she was taken from there to the kind stranger's home. They made sure to let her lean on him a little longer as she was physically

Issei made sure to pick up both her veil and the things he was holding onto before he fell onto her. Using his keys to open up the door, he welcomed her inside, leading her to sit on the dinner table. "Just wait for me a bit, I'll go get the medicine." He bowed, and went to find the emergency kit.

Asia Argento could only awkwardly wait for Issei to come back with the treatments he promised, going straight to the kitchen counters to get it. She leaned on one side, holding onto her head with a sigh. She honestly didn't want to stay at his home for any longer than she needed to, but leaving now would be rudely denying his hospitality. She would deal with it when it came, however. It was honestly a good thing that he stepped in to help either way…

Issei scrounged through their medical equipment, and took what he needed. Along with all of that, he took a long piece of cloth and a small tub of water, picking up some ice from the freezer during that. He sighed, and went back to the waiting girl.

He wiped away the blood still pouring out slightly, and pushed it in with a clean cloth to make sure it stopped bleeding. Satisfied, he picked up a Q-Tip and went to work with cleaning it up for the bandage.

Taking the cotton bud, he dipped it in the bottle of Povidone-iodine and told her to stay still for a moment. Afterwards, he rubbed the open wound on the left side of her forehead where the open wound was with the medicine. He reeled a little bit when he saw her flinch at the sting, but continued on with it regardless. After that was done, he ripped a ball of cotton and pressed against her forehead, cutting a small piece of surgical tape to put on top. He repeated the action to the one on her chin.

He took a small plastic bag with ice and a piece of cloth together, and told her to hold it against the right side of her head. He also told her to raise the foot she was sprained in, and he went to work massaging it to lessen the strain. The rest of the injuries were treated fairly quickly. A few wraps around her left hand to keep from infection, and that was it, really.

Asia watched as the boy she bumped into by accident treated her so calmly and carefully despite only meeting her a few minutes ago. Having faced nothing but contempt for a while now, it was a pretty strange situation to be in, having someone wholeheartedly help her. Even knowing that he hurt her so badly was another thing that he wanted to make amends with, so she was stumped.

Simply put, she didn't know what to think or what to do from here. All she could do was but wait and see how it would go. It was all she could do for the moment.

"It's the best I could I do without any professional equipment, so I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you all the way. I'm still very sorry about that, I usually try my best to avoid slamming into someone else, but... A-Ah." He blinked as the blonde-haired girl shook her head from left to right, humming a cute little tune.

She stood up and clasped both hands together below her stomach, though she was still breathing a little quickly. "No, no, Issei-kun. You did all you were able to do. Thank you. Really." Though she leaned on the side still, she felt much better now that Issei did all of this for her.

The sides of Issei's mouth raised a little until he realized she might be too vulnerable to just leave outside and fend for herself at the moment. Putting a hand to his chin, Issei thought it best that he accompanied her to the church on his own. But he had to ask the question of how considering he still had to buy the groceries within the next 3 hours before the shops closed.

He blinked, and chuckled lowly. Snapping a finger, he looked to the cabinet where he left his phone. He pointed at it to let Asia know what he was about to do, who nodded.

Issei walked over to take his phone and dialed Rias's number, hoping she would at least listen to him for even a little bit. He put his phone next to his ear, looking to the side as Asia slowly ate the dinner he offered to her. He waited for the call to be received, and smiled.

His feet tapped on the floor as he asked his question. "Rias, can I ask for a small favor? It's something pretty important."

"Of course, I can, Issei-kun. You're a close friend, after all." She smiled from the other side after hearing his breath of relief. "Why did you ask?"

"Can you send in a car to pick me up in my house? I have to drop someone off at the church before I go to the supermarket to pick up some stuff. I kind of hurt her real bad earlier and I'd feel bad if I just left her out alone this late in the day so… Hehe." He swallowed in something hard. "So, basically that's what's happening."

Rias opened her mouth to try and respond but closed it just afterwards, unable to vocalize a concise response. Not quite sure what could possibly be going on but trusting Issei's judgement, she relented. "I think that should be fine, Issei… but you know I'll have to accompany you, right? We're talking about a church associate, after all."

"Great! I'll be waiting for you just outside my house. Asia," He turned to look back at Asia, who perked at her mention. "I can get you back to the church within the next hour. Is that alright with you?"

She nodded, smiling very brightly. "Yes it is. Thank you so much for this, Issei-san, I'm not really sure how else I would have gone home…" Her tone drifted lowly and she looked down morose. Issei noticed, but did not know how to interpret it.

"Thanks a lot, Rias-senpai. I can't thank you enough for this." He ended the connection just after, putting the phone on the tabletop. He gave a thumbs up to the girl next to him, who nodded.

"Wait, Issei I…! Hmph." Rias turned off her phone and set it down. She sighed deeply. She looked to her companion, giving her a concerned look. "I trust her judgements most of the time, but this… Isn't this just strange, Akeno?"

The girl in question chuckled, and responded. "Chief, you only need to give him a chance. He's only doing the right thing, isn't he?" She tilted her head to the side after hearing her sigh.

"Akeno." Her tone was rigid, hard. Akeno Himejima considered that the point where she would start being more serious.

"Yes, Rias-sama?"

"That church had been abandoned for years… And no one has ever entered the Church for clerical purposes in years…" She looked to her closest subordinate with more concern.

Realization struck. Akeno realized that didn't bode well, did it? "Ah, I see the problem now. Well, we could only wait and see

Rias sighed, and stood up. "Akeno, I want you to watch over the apartment while I'm away. Is that alright with you?" She put on her jacket and set out. While she called in a driver, she waited outside patiently.

…

"You sure you can walk yourself to the hospital tomorrow after this? You know how much that's going to hurt soon, right?" She nods. "Are you sure? You know I could always take you there if you want."

"Don't worry, Issei-san. I think I can handle myself from here." She bows, "You've done enough for me today as is. I can't repay you enough." And so, she walked up the steps, doing her best to avoid tripping over.

"Alright." He looks to his side. "Take care of yourself, promise me!" He waves her goodbye and turns back to face the car. He puts his hand on the door handle, pausing when he hears Rias cough into her fist.

"You know Issei…" Rias began. He turned around to face her, raising an eyebrow. "The Cathedral hasn't been inhabited in years. The former priest died due to an assassination, and it hasn't been used ever since. Last I checked," she looked at him straight in the eyes.

"It's been inhabited by only Fallen Angels and fake priests. I don't think she's a real nun, Issei, not anymore at least." He could only open his mouth agape, not sure how to process that at all.

"If you're still so certain to make sure she stays alive… If you still want to protect her throughout all of this, I don't think we can get involved with it for any longer than we have to. We can't, and shouldn't." She looked down. "I understand how much you care for her despite meeting her for such a short time. I kind of get it, you feel indebted to her, and you want to make up for hurting her."

"Just please." She looked back at him. "Take care of yourself, alright? You know how much Sona-san depends on you."

Still shocked, Issei looked down at his left hand, feeling the pressure building inside. Closing his eyes, he clenched his fist and nodded. "Of course I can. You know how strong I am already, right?" He gave her a wide grin. "I can do whatever it takes to protect the people I love. You can count on that."

"Good. That's all I needed to know." Rias sighed, figuring that his chronic inability to not be a hero goes above and beyond, apparently. That's part of what made her such an intriguing person, however.

And even if she didn't, she wouldn't care any less. That was made them such close friends, after all. They went inside the car, ordering the driver to drive to the supermarket before they left. Issei huddled at the back while Rias sat in the front.

"Rias-san," Issei began, waiting for Rias to turn back to look at him. "Can you ask the driver to swap radio stations? My favorite usually airs Man with a Mission at this hour."

Blinking, she sighs, telling the driver to do so. Knowing that he wasn't influenced in anyway was pretty basic now that she knows that he'd still be listening to his favorites now. The rest of the night went normally, and Issei managed to get the groceries on time.

**If you couldn't tell by now, the end goal would also be a harem, though one that Issei didn't go out of his way to make this time. Also, she's just a little humbler, and more reserved, but much of the same heroic spirit (heh) and drive still exists. And the libido. But as you'd imagine, she tries to avoid doing _it_ often considering the presence of a certain you-know-who inside of her head. **

**If I had no standards, I'd make smut about that scenario since I, uh, _think it's actually kind of hot_. But I won't, this is a Christian Minecraft server so no penetration happening here. I'd get banned from this website I tried, so yeah. If you find any errors, just point them out and I'll try my best to fix them on time.**

**Lastly, I'll try my best to integrate what happened during the timeskip through bits and pieces that you should be able to pick up over time. I did end up cancelling several pre-canon chapters since that would have spread the eventual transition too thin and spread out, after all. Was a pretty hard decision, part of the reason I took so long to come up with this chapter.**

**Like Prisma Emerald. He was going to be important, I had plans for it, involving Asia, but... Yeah. Still not sure about going through with it, you only saw it once after all and on an Omake of all things.**

Issei Hyoudou sized up the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven transformation with a barely visible smirk. She made it barely visible on purpose, as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven did not show her desires so easily, and honestly, why would she? In any case, it was something she had to make the most out of as far as gifts go, so _of course _she'd the make the most out of it. By using it to show off her barely restrained, chuuni-level desires.

Coughing into her mouth, she willed into existence some flames around her shoulders and grinned wildly. Putting her left hand to her face, she shouted. "I shall reign in this transient world as a Demon King! Come, serve me and I shall give you a life of pleasure and glory!" In her own honest opinion, she did the job pretty well. Smiling wildly, she decided to have even more fun with it.

Giggling wildly, she looks to the posters on the wall and had an idea. She put her hand on the grip of the blade and smirked. Imagining an enemy in front of her, she continued. "My sword is not easily drawn, but when it does…" She had a severe look in her face. "It sees blood." She cackled madly.

Returning to the center of the room, she stopped. She put her hand on her chin once more and thought of manifesting as many guns as her room could handle. Putting a pillow on the center of the room, she continued her private monologues, by stealing someone else's.

"I am the bone of my sword," she started off, thinking to ape the more popular Archer in the franchise's chant since she honestly couldn't think of anything else. "Steel is my body, and fire is my blood…"

"I have no regrets. This is the only path." A serious look crossed her face. "My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works!" She ended it all with the guns falling one by one into the pillow as they disintegrated instantly. She looked very satisfied with her achievement.

"_Isn't that the Red Bowman's schtick?_" Oda Nobunaga questioned, floating around Issei's head like a guardian spirit. "_It's not good to steal intellectual rights so easily like that,_ _you know. Servants usually get really touchy about that." _She shook her head, smiling incredulously even as Issei continued to change her perspective of her older, more bombastic form with the dynamite body.

"Doesn't he steal everyone else's, though? It's not like he knows what we're doing here, you know." Oda Nobunaga shrugged, figuring that she may as well let the fact that her mother was about to barge in a secret for a little while longer. Just to see what happened next. While that happened, Issei continued her private chuuni exploration with glee.

Nobu's prediction was true, however. Two knocks on the door and it opened, revealing the mother. Issei's mother peaked through the door, irritation on her face. "Issei, it's late at night, why are you…" The matriarch began, pausing after seeing her daughter size up her gifted body wearing one of the most provocative and sultry outfits she had ever seen in her life. That it seemed to be modeled after dominatrices did not help things at all, even if she stepped back and considered how Sentai-villain-like it was.

Issei continued to do her thing, and did so for another few moments. Evidently, she didn't notice even as Nobu tried to hide a barely repressed giggle. She shouted to herself, continuing on with her tomfoolery.

"Master, forgive me." Both of her blades appeared on her hands in an instant, creating a cross shape in the center of her breastplate. "But I'm afraid I'll have to go all out!" She did some half-hearted fighting moves and sounds, doing a kata or two she came up with on the spot instead of the ones drilled into her thanks to Nobunaga's experience. Just after dematerializing them both, she chuckled. After the chuckle, she went into a full-on fit of uncontrollable laughter, unable to hold in anymore of her emotions.

"Pfft… Hahahahaha…!" Issei laughed loudly, and sighed. Shaking her head, she turned around to find her mother look at her with a blank expression. They considered each other's existence.

Her face returned to neutrality, and stared back. A little while after, she returned to her primary form and swapped to her pajamas. She returned to her bed with a face as unreadable as before, and nodded to her mother.

She left the room just after, and Issei put the blanket on top of her as much as humanly possible in order to hide her pain. On the side she had to listen to Nobu's uncontrolled laughter at her expense.

**Now that this is done, I'll just let you know my classes start in the 17th. Yay, I'm almost a college student… Well, I'll live with it when it happens. Can't even typeset properly anymore smh.**


End file.
